Making Debrouillards: The Modern Pentathlon and the Pursuit of Completeness‪.‬

Workmen who operate a bending and punching press to produce a piece of metal twenty-three centimeters in length; scholars who exclusively concentrate on the investigation of oil palms in West Africa; athletes who since childhood have trained in the 100 meter sprint without ever throwing a javelin or playing soccer: in the early 20th century specialization gained ground in different social areas of continental Europe. (1) The rationalization of skills was seen as human progress and modern sports developed into "a prime example of what Max Weber called Zweckrationalitat (instrumental rationality)." (2) Being an expert in one area and assuming that nobody on earth was better in this domain, was considered to be the highest aim of human achievement. In the sports world our heroes, more often than not, are athletes who exhibit extraordinary talent for a single sport, honoured as the "fastest," the "strongest," the most adept athletes who have ever been. (3) Astonishingly enough, given this trend, a new combined sport exercise was integrated into the Olympic program of the Stockholm Games in 1912. It was called the Modern Pentathlon; it was composed of shooting, fencing, swimming, horse-riding, and running; it required all-round instead of one-sided sport performance abilities, that is, diversity instead of specialization. It remains a part of the Modern Olympic program to this very day. Whereas other sports increasingly concentrated on the enhancement of specific skills which were needed to bring performance to perfection, Modern Pentathlon did not fit this trend. Created at the beginning of the 20th century and embodying values of a many-sided education, Modern Pentathlon stood out against contemporary developments towards specialization. This dichotomy, "specialization vs. completeness," evokes the question: How did such a sport discipline distinguished by versatility evolve and endure in times that have been strenuously underscored and characterized by specialization?