I’m a Team GB Olympic champion, but horse-punching scandal means the sport I love is about to be consigned to history

JOE CHOONG plans to fence, swim, ride, shoot and finally run into the future in Paris.

But what he really cannot stand is the sport he loves being consigned to the past.

AFP

Joe Choong won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020[/caption]

Getty

But the Brit is worried about the future of his sport[/caption]

Paris will see the last version of the modern pentathlon in its current incarnation, with South Londoner Choong, 29, looking to defend his crown.

But the furore caused by German coach Kim Raisner punching the horse that cost her protege Annika Schleu a medal chance in Tokyo saw sports chiefs rip up the history books in order to keep the event in the Games.

From Los Angeles in 2028, the showjumping section — with competitors randomly assigned a horse — will be replaced by a Ninja Warrior style assault course. And for Choong, that is a step too far.

He said: “I went into a sport, not a TV game show. And that’s what they’re turning it into.

“I don’t agree with it. I don’t agree with the politics and the sort of figures behind the change.

“But you can’t stay angry at it because at the end of the day it’s done. You’ve got to accept it.

“It’s likely that when I get across the line in Paris, whatever the result, I’ll just think ‘this has been a fantastic journey — but it feels like a good time to call it a day’.”

While modern pentathlon — based on the fable of a cavalry officer bringing a vital message back from behind enemy lines — was Games founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin’s favourite event, it is not an obvious sport to take up.

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Raisner’s rider Annika Schleu was left in tears after her horse refused to jump[/caption]

Nor was it for Choong, who added: “I have always loved sport.

“We were on holiday in Cornwall with my family in 2000 watching the Sydney Olympics, Steve Redgrave winning his fourth gold medal.

Watching people like that and Kelly Holmes with her double Olympic gold in 2004, made me love sport and I knew I wanted to be an Olympian. I loved the idea.

When 2012 came around I went to the Olympic Park and the horse riding arena in Greenwich Park.

“I told myself ‘I can do better than these guys’. Then, at the next Olympics, I was there competing.”

Choong dropped out of contention from second during the Rio laser run but was brilliant in Tokyo, running away from Egypt’s Ahmed ElGendy on the final lap.

Since then, his reputation has soared. Choong admitted: “At any World Cup now, the announcer likes to repeat eight times during the competition ‘and Joe Choong, Olympic champion, is in first place’ or wherever I am.

“Lots of younger athletes have put a target on my back. I’ve had to work out how I can keep improving to stop them catching up.”