Military Olympians

Air Force's Bremer finishes 22nd in modern pentathlon

Bremer discuss a recent training injury. Watch the video. (Credit: Gannett News Service)

BEIJING — Notes from U.S. Air Force personnel poured in from Alabama to Qatar, all wishing Eli Bremer well as he embarked on the Olympic modern pentathlon.

But by mid-morning Thursday, Bremer knew these Games weren't going to be his.

A dismal start at shooting led to sub-par fencing, and neither a good swim nor a solid equestrian ride could raise his points enough to make much of a difference by the time the last event, the 3,000-meter run, was held in pouring rain at the Olympic Sports Center Stadium.

Bremer, a member of the Air Force World Class Athlete Program, finished 22nd in a field of 36 with 5,204 points. Fellow American Sam Sacksen finished 18th with 5,280 points.

Andrey Moiseev of Russia won the gold medal with 5,632 points. Edvinas Krungolcas (5,548) and Andrejus Zadneprovskis (5,524), both of Lithuania, took silver and bronze.

Bremer knew two rounds into shooting he wasn't going to challenge.

"It started out really badly," he said. "I sat myself down and kind of said, 'you're better than this,' and I re-focused and I started shooting a lot better. But I dropped 10 points in the first two shots and you can't do that and expect to do well at the Olympics.

"Had I had a better shoot, I think the fencing would have gone better, too. As much as you would like to think that the sports don't interact with each other, when you're having a great day it just continues to build on itself. When you're having a bad day, it's real hard to pick yourselves up by the bootstraps four more times."

Bremer ranked 35th after shooting and fencing, 34th after swimming and 25th after he had one of the better rides of a misty evening.

The show jumping devolved into something of a farce as one horse after another either stopped short, threw its rider, crashed into obstacles or had to be ridden off the course without finishing because time ran out.

David Svoboda of the Czech Republic was ranked second going into the event and 31st following it, after his horse twice refused to leap one obstacle and then plowed right into another, knocking it over as both horse and rider tumbled to the ground.

Bremer placed 14th.

"The horses weren't bad, but the conditions were lousy," Bremer said. "It's wet, and you've got 35,000 people cheering at every jump — that's kind of strange for horses."

Bremer, a captain in the Air Force, came away from his first Olympics wondering if he'd have the financial backing and desire to compete in 2012, and knowing what he'd do differently.

He suffered whiplash about a week ago because he rode despite having flown almost nonstop over the previous days; in hindsight, he said, that was too soon. He also came away from the Olympics with a renewed appreciation for his many supporters.

"I couldn't do this without the Air Force," he said. "They're really the reason I'm here. It's just impossible for me to do this sport without their support. This week has been awesome: I mean, today was a bad day, but I've probably gotten 50 e-mails from service members I didn't even know who are e-mailing me from around the world, from Qatar to Maxwell Air Force base in Alabama. So having the Air Force as a backer has been terrific."