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Australia Modern Pentathlon

2000 Five Dollar

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This Olympic Modern Pentathlon commemorative coin was part of a set released following the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. They depict 28 forms of Olympic sports. It had a Raphael Maklouf design on the obverse depicting Queen Elizabeth II, right-facing, crowned with necklace and earrings along with the legend ELIZABETH II AUSTRALIA 2000. The reverse has an official Olympic logo and showing each of the five events of the modern pentathlon. This was designed by Philip Holliday and includes the denomination 5 DOLLARS.

The modern pentathlon consists of five events. Some would consider the modern pentathlon to be the very soul of Olympics. Firstly, the shooting event is done with pistols. Then the fencing event followed by a 200 metre freestyle swimming event (this had been reduced from 300m at previous Olympics). The show jumping is a great test as the horse used by each competitor will be unknown to them. The final event is the cross-country run which has also been reduced for the 2000 Olympics. It was now just 3kms. The Gold was won by Dmitry Svatkovsky of Russia. The Women's event made its debut at the Sydney Olympics. It was a good event for Team GB. They took Gold and Bronze and was also considered a clean sweep by Stephanie Cook as the Silver medallist from USA also trained with them at Oxford in England (Sports Reference, 2013) .

The original Olympic Games took place about 3,500 years ago but they didn't last. It was originally held during a religious festival honouring the Greek god Zeus. The Games were abolished in 393 A.D. by the Roman Emperor, Theodosius I, as he tried to suppress paganism.They restarted 1896 and were held in Athens, Greece. It was a great success. The International Olympic Committee had been formed two years earlier. The resurrection was an inspiration from Baron Pierre de Coubertin back in 1887. To be held every four years, as per Ancient Games, the Olympic Games became a great success. The first one to be held in Australia took place in Melbourne, 1956 (Sydney Olympic Games, 2010) . In 1993, Sydney was awarded the opportunity to host the 2000 Olympic Games. This was a chance for Australia to shine. And shine it did. The Sydney games broke so many records including ticket sales, attendances, transport,catering and most importantly, they finished fourth in the medal tables.