Ancient Olympic pentathlon Ancient Olympic pentathlon The Ancient Olympic pentathlon () was an athletic contest at the Ancient Olympic Games, and other Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece. The name derives from Greek, combining the words "pente" (five) and "athlon" (competition). Five events were contested over one day, starting with the "stadion" (a short foot race) followed by the Javelin throw, Discus throw, Long jump (the order of these three events is still unclear), and ending with wrestling. While Pentathletes were considered to be inferior to the specialized athletes in a certain event, they were superior in overall development and were some of the
High jump events to feature on the Olympic athletics programme. It is contested at the World Championships in Athletics and IAAF World Indoor Championships, and is a common occurrence at track and field meetings. The high jump was among the first events deemed acceptable for women, having been held at the 1928 Olympic Games. Javier Sotomayor (Cuba) is the current men's record holder with a jump of set in 1993 – the longest standing record in the history of the men's high jump. Stefka Kostadinova (Bulgaria) has held the women's world record at since 1987, also the longest-held record in the event.