The Malta Independent on Sunday
Esposito gets Olympic gold in women’s modern pentathlon
Chloe Esposito emerged from the tunnel into Deodoro Stadium, her bright, white teeth sparkling in the lights.
The smile stuck with her on the long walk to the medal stand, through presentations of bronze and silver, and onto the top step.
Esposito had just claimed Australia's first medal in modern pentathlon and added the first Olympic gold to her family's decorated athletic history.
Elodie Clouvel of France captured silver and Oktawia Nowacka of Poland earned bronze.
Esposito was solid throughout the five events of the pentathlon: seventh after swimming, sixth through fencing, up to fourth following equestrian.
Her best event is the runningshooting combination in the finale, so she knew gold was still within reach.
Esposito charged from the start, making up ground quickly while slowing herself down enough to hit her targets on the shooting range. The 24-year-old from Sydney had the second-fastest time through the four 800-meter segments and missed just one target to make her way to the top of the podium from fourth place.
Not bad for someone who had limited training early in the year because of an Achilles tendon injury.
Esposito had been training for this moment all her life.
Her father, Daniel, competed for Australia in modern pentathlon at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.cing with Emily — and helped put her in position to make history for family and country.
The world-record holder in modern pentathlon swimming, Clouvel was solid all day and en- tered the final events in second, 12 points behind Nowacka. She couldn't catch Esposito, though, finishing nearly a minute off the winning time in running and needed 34 shots to hit 20 targets.
Clouvel fell 16 points short of gold, but still earned her country's first Olympic medal in modern pentathlon since 1984, when its men's team took bronze.