To better appreciate the evolution of the pentathlon, search history's battlefields: A military officer, attacked while delivering a message on horseback, fells his opponents with pistol and sword. Having lost his horse during the exchange, he is forced to swim the width of a river and run the remaining miles to his post.

Inspired by such heroic displays of skill and strength and building on the ancient Greek pentathlon, modern Olympic founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin had an idea: parlay the physical demands of a cavalry officer into a new competition in which its contenders must excel in a combination of pistol shooting, fencing, swimming, equestrian show jumping, and cross-country running. These modern warriors, he surmised, would be the finest athletes of the Games.

Millions of spectators of the 2004 summer Olympic Games in Athens this August will be unaware that the pentathlon might have been doomed, if not for the actions of Robert Marbut Jr. '82, chair of the United States Olympic Committee's National Governing Bodies Council, which coordinates the activities of all 45 Summer Olympic, Winter Olympic, and Pan American sports.

Soon after Marbut became general secretary of the USA Pentathalon, a group of IOC members recommended dropping the pentathlon from the Games. Sponsors wanted to free up space for more popular, TV-friendly sports. But former White House Fellow Marbut, a pentathlete himself, lobbied against its demise, using the 92-year-old competition's age and history in its favor. "There are only two or three remaining sports whose origins date back to the ancient Greek Olympics," Marbut says. "The pentathlon is one of them."

His charge to rescue the pentathlon made the front page of The Wall Street Journal in November 2002. The work, including a global networking effort by pentathlon supporters to contact all 127 of IOC's voting members, was exhausting. Averaging four hours of sleep a night, Marbut developed a taste for super-sized Diet Cokes in the mornings.

The strategy was tiring, but successful: The pentathlon will remain on the Olympic schedule at least through the2008 Games in Beijing. "We survived a bullet shot straight at our heads," says Marbut. "Things looked bleak, but right now there is no immediate threat. Of course, they'll never tell you that you're good and safe, either."

Emerging victorious in battle is consistent with Marbut's professional and personal style. Just two years out of CMC, working for former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, Marbut collected 76,000 signatures on the largest referendum in Texas history: an effort to build the Alamodome, a covered stadium in San Antonio. The initiative made it to election and won. "It's important to have goals, and ambitions, and dreams," Marbut says. "But the important thing at the end of the day is: Did you give your best possible effort?"

An accomplished high school athlete, Marbut pursued colleges offering both solid academics—including a focus on government and public service—and all five pentathlon sports. "I was trying to win a spot on the 1980 Olympic team," he says, "and the College didn't make me choose between athletics and academics. I found my home with people who saw that there was no reason to sacrifice sports for academics, or vice versa."

Although Marbut trained full-time as a pentathlete with the U.S. Olympic squad during second semester of his freshman year, he never made it: the United States boycotted the 1980 Games to protest the Soviet Union's involvement in Afghanistan.

Refocusing on academics presented a new challenge: Back at CMC, Marbut was diagnosed as both dyslexic and dysgraphic. "I was about to flunk out because of my learning disabilities," he says, "but literature professors Ladell Payne and Langdon Elsbree created a program teaching me to adapt." Marbut, who has since earned two master's degrees and has almost finished his Ph.D., found new balance in sports: life skills, success, perseverance, time-management skills, and a release from some of the frustrations of the academic world.

Other useful lessons were gleaned from former swim coach Mike Sutton '76, now CMS athletics director; Professor of Psychology Emeritus Harvey Wichman; and Alan Heslop, professor of government emeritus. "Mike taught me pure class: to strive to be your best, and not worry about the competition," Marbut says. "Harvey Wichman introduced me to psychology, and how to deal with people on an individual level. I use skills he gave me every day, dealing with both sports and government.

"The USOC is a chartered entity of Congress, and I've spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill," Marbut continues. "The pure, practical things I learned from Professor Heslop have helped me navigate Washington and the legislative process."

In his role as chair of the USOC's National Governing Bodies Council, Marbut has served on the Officers Group, Executive Committee, Board of Directors, Transition Task Force, and several other leadership committees. He will also assist the Chef de Mission and his staff in Athens.

In a continuing effort to preserve Olympic history and to make the pentathlon more engaging for sponsors and TV viewers, Marbut also has overseen internal, structural changes, including condensing the event to one from five days, and adding women competitors in 2000. These user-friendly changes, designed to give the sport a lasting, modern appeal, are crucial, Marbut says, as administrators look to streamline Olympic sports.

Academics and athletics are highly synergistic in the pentathlon, he says. "Intelligence breeds achievement in the skill sports: pistol shooting, horse jumping, and fencing, complementing success in the brawn sports: running and swimming. Education," he says, "really translates to accomplishment."

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Marbut at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in San Antonio, Texas.