updated 2:23 p.m. ET Aug. 24, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - His sport likes to call its champions the complete sportsmen. One of them has come to Athens as the consummate salesman.

Dmitry Svatkovsky has pulled challenging double duty: pitching Moscow's underdog bid for the 2012 Olympics and lobbying to save the eclectic mix of running, swimming, shooting, fencing and horse riding called modern pentathlon.

"At least there's always something to talk about," said Svatkovsky, winner of the event in Sydney four years ago.

He may be little known outside the small universe of his sport — the only one devised specifically for the Olympics. But the lanky Russian is someone to watch. He's in the thick of high-stakes action that never appears on any Olympic scorecard.

The International Olympic Committee plans to meet next July in Singapore to decide on the 2012 summer host. Moscow is widely considered the outsider against powerful rivals New York, Paris, London and Madrid, Spain.

The IOC also may vote on proposals to drop some Olympic sports. The three most likely — baseball, softball and modern pentathlon — escaped the ax this year and will remain at least until 2008. But it was just a reprieve, not a full pardon. There's pressure to buff up the Olympic schedule with sports appealing to the youth market coveted by sponsors and television advertisers.

Modern pentathlon may have a better shot than Moscow at making the cut.

Svatkovsky and the bid team must overcome IOC worries about corruption and security. Headlines about rouge capitalism or Chechen rebel attacks do not help. Svatkovsky, however, counters with something the IOC wants to hear: Moscow's rich network of sports facilities and promises they could be made Olympic ready with little fuss.

"We want to show all the world what kind of changes have happened in Russia," said Svatkovsky, the sports director of the 2012 campaign. "A new Russia, new Russians and a new face of Russia."

Athens is prime turf to try to show it off.

Each bid city has sent high-powered delegations to the games. There are rules banning direct courting of IOC voters. The bidders get around it through hospitality tents and events that double as open mikes to plug their cities.

Svatkovsky said Moscow is avoiding the glitz. The medal count over the decades — from czarist Russia to the USSR and back to Russia — speaks for itself.

"Sports tradition is our strength," he said.

The same sentiments could be used in defense of the modern pentathlon.

The whole idea is attributed to French Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who helped revive the Olympics in 1896. Its inspiration was the pentathlon of the ancient games with a turn-of-the-century twist: an event intended to recreate the skills needed for a mounted military courier fighting to get a message through hostile territory.

Competitors fire at targets with a 4.5-millimeter air pistol; engage in fencing duels with epees; swim 200 meters; run three kilometers and ride a horse over a course with 12 obstacles. One more thing: The horses are picked at random and rider and steed have just 20 minutes to get acquainted.

In the first modern pentathlon in the 1912 Games, an American second lieutenant — George S. Patton — finished fifth. Accounts say he was bumped from the medal group by poor marksmanship. In 1968, the sport briefly made news when a Swedish competitor was dropped after showing up drunk.

But Olympic minders, watching the all-important TV ratings, ask: What have you done for us lately?

Actually, quite a lot.

In an attempt to appease reformists, the sports was condensed for the 1996 Games from a four-day affair to a seven-hour competition. A women's event was added in Sydney.

More changes could come. The events in Athens, which begin Thursday, could be the last in the traditional — yet streamlined — format.

The secretary-general of the sport's international federation, Joel Bouzou, said officials have come up with plans for a triathlon-style event. Four athletes will race directly from one discipline to the next. The winner moves on to the next round.

"It is very intense," he said. "In 20 minutes you will see a full pentathlon."

The proposal — the product of two years of work with media and marketing consultants — could be presented to the IOC at the crucial Singapore meeting in July.

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