- Joe Choong won the men’s modern pentathlon in Tokyo three years ago
- But he failed to retain his Olympic title and finished ninth at Paris 2024.
- Choong was unhappy with Team GB for not selecting his girlfriend this year
British pentathlete Joe Choong has suggested he would have performed better at Paris 2024 if his girlfriend had also been selected for the British team.
Choong won gold in the men’s modern pentathlon in Tokyo three years ago but missed out on a medal by a significant margin in Paris, where he finished ninth.
After the event ended on Saturday night, Choong expressed her frustration with Team GB for not choosing Olivia Green, who won bronze at last year’s European Games, to compete in the women’s modern pentathlon this summer.
Choong also made it clear he was disappointed that his brother Henry was unable to compete against him in Paris after switching his national allegiance from Britain to Slovakia.
“I would have liked to have been able to take home a medal this time,” he said. “I showed that I prepared well physically, but a couple of days ago I wasn’t in the mental condition to perform when needed, so I left too much to do.”
Joe Choong won an Olympic gold medal in the men’s modern pentathlon in Tokyo in 2021
But Chong was unable to retain her title and eventually finished in ninth place at Paris 2024.
He added: “The saying goes ‘a happy athlete is a good athlete’, and I think that’s true. I haven’t been particularly happy with the training environment for a couple of months.
‘I said after Tokyo that my goal was to be in Paris with my brother, which couldn’t happen for political reasons; he never got his Slovak passport in time.
‘Also, my girlfriend. I wanted my family to compete with me. That process was really disappointing. I didn’t quite understand the decision-making process. It’s been hard to get over it. It made my job a lot harder from a mental standpoint.
‘I’m going to be away for a couple of months to clear my head. I need to find my love for sport again.
“I showed physically that I did the preparation well, but mentally I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to perform when it mattered a couple of days ago.”
Olivia Green, pictured at a training camp in January, was not selected for this summer’s Games.
Green is Choong’s girlfriend and he believes her absence negatively affected his performance.
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Choong was asked on Saturday night if he planned to compete in Los Angeles in 2028. He replied: “I’m going to keep competing for another year. I don’t want to finish in ninth place, I’m an Olympic champion for a reason, a two-time world champion. I want to finish on a high.”
Gold in this summer’s men’s modern pentathlon went to Egypt’s Ahmed Elgendy, while Japan’s Taishu Sato took silver and Italy’s Giorgio Malan claimed bronze.
