Modern Pentathlon at the 2020 Summer Olympics

The modern pentathlon in Tokyo was contested in the same format as in Rio five years earlier. The only change was that the swimming was held for the first time in a 25 m pool after always previously being contested in a 50 m pool at the Olympics. Again, the events were held over two days, with the traditional fencing round-robin on the first day, and all other events, including the fencing bonus round, on the second day. The last event for both genders was again the laser-run, a combined event of a 3200 m run with four shooting stages in between.

Yet again, 36 athletes per gender were scheduled to compete with a maximum of two per NOC and gender. For both genders, 20 athletes were eligible to qualify from continental championships; eight from Europe, five each from Asia and America, and one each from Africa and Oceania. Six more spots were given to the top finishers in the 2019 World Cup final and the 2019 and 2020 World Championships. The qualification started in February 2019 and should have ended in May 2020 with the World Championships. However, after the postponement of the Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Worlds were also moved to for the same reason and were finally held in June 2021. A further eight places per gender were awarded to the highest placed not already qualified athletes according to the world ranking as per 14 June 2021. The remaining places were re-allocated also according to the world ranking.

In total, athletes from a record number of 31 NOCs competed in Tokyo surpassing the number of 30 that participated in 1992. Laura Asadauskaitė and Anastasiya Prakapenka both competed in their fourth Olympics, equalling the participation record for female modern pentathletes held by Jeļena Rubļevska who competed from 2000-12. Asadauskaitė also became the first female modern pentathlete to win two Olympic medals, and also became the oldest ever Olympic medallist in this sport aged 37 years 159 days, being 38 days older than Pavel Lednyov when he won his last Olympic medals in 1980.

Great Britain became the first ever nation to win both individual events at the same Games. The female event was contested for the sixth time, and thanks to Kate French, Great Britain became the first nation to win the female competition for a second time after winning the inaugural edition in 2000 with Steph Cook. British female modern pentathletes also returned to the podium after winning at least one medal in every edition, but failed to medal in 2016. In contrast, Joe Choong was the first man to win an individual Olympic medal in this sport for Great Britain. Ahmed El-Gendy won the first ever Olympic medal in modern pentathlon for Egypt and the continent of Africa, and Jeon Ung-Tae won the first Olympic medal in this sport for South Korea.