Pavlo Tymoschenko is a Ukrainian modern pentathlete with a long history of competing at the highest possible level. He has represented his country at three Olympic Games, in Beijing, London, and Rio, winning silver at the latter. Now entering his third decade of competition, he is currently ranked fifth in the world, and came fifth in the 2019 World Cup Final held in Tokyo.
Tymoschenko has been competing internationally since 2007. Whereas some pentathletes make their mark at junior championships before graduating, he was straight into the Senior World Championships, finishing an encouraging 21st in a field of 50. 2008 saw similar positions in world and European championships but, seemingly from nowhere, he also made the Olympic finals in Beijing, finishing in seventh place. The confidence and momentum this gave Tymoschenko continued into the following year when he won silver at the World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro, the future site of his Olympic glory. Years of solid results followed. Tymoschenko performed especially well as part of relay teams, helping them to victories in several major tournaments. However, the greatest prize of his career (to date) came in 2016 when he won Olympic silver in Rio de Janeiro, fending off the likes of Valentin Prades and Joe Choong.
The delay in the Tokyo Olympics bought on by the coronavirus pandemic has afforded extra time and places to qualify for what will now be the 2021 games. Even this far into a long career, you have to favour Pavlo Tymoschenko to make his fourth Olympics and second Olympic medal.