At the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, two events in modern pentathlon were contested.

Medal summary

Medal table

Participating nations

A total of 60 athletes from 23 nations competed at the Rome Games:

Results

Individual

Team

Tunisian athletes

The modern pentathletes from Tunisia were notable for their poor performances and attempts at cheating. In the swimming portion, one competitor, Ahmed Ennachi, nearly drowned. In the shooting portion, an athlete was ejected for firing too closely to the judges, and in the equestrian portion, all three athletes fell off their horses. In the fencing portion, the Tunisians attempted to pass off their strongest fencer as each of the three athletes, using his mask to conceal his identity. The ruse failed and the Tunisians were disqualified from the fencing portion. Altogether in the team competition, Tunisia received 5,126 points, which was around 5,000 points below the next team and almost 10,000 behind the winners.