Modern pentathlon was first contested at the Olympic Games at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.^[1] The sport was invented by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games.

Quick Facts Men's modern pentathlon at the Games of the V Olympiad, Dates ...

Men's modern pentathlon at the Games of the V Olympiad
Dates	July 7–12, 1912
Competitors	32 from 10 nations
Medalists
James Thorpe  United States Gösta Åsbrink  Sweden Georg de Laval  Sweden
1920 →

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A lost points system was used, in which the athlete lost the same number of points corresponding to his position in each modality. Thus, the first position resulted in 1 Lost Point, the second position 2 Lost Points, and so on. At the end, the classification was obtained by adding up the lost points, and the placements were assigned in ascending order of the number of points lost by each competitor.

A total of 32 athletes from 11 nations competed at the Stockholm Games:

•  Austria (1)
•  Denmark (4)
•  France (1)
•  Germany (1)
•  Great Britain (1)
•  Netherlands (1)
•  Norway (1)
•  Russia (5)
•  Sweden (12)
•  United States (1)