Joe and Henry Choong: Brothers aiming for Paris 2024 modern pentathlon with different nations

Joe Choong will once again represent Team GB at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Team GB's Olympic Champion in modern pentathlon could compete against his brother for different nations in the Paris games next year.

After a 10th-place finish at Rio 2016, Joe Choong became the first British man to win individual modern pentathlete gold at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

This Olympic cycle, Olympic and world champion Joe has been training alongside his younger brother Henry on the Team GB programme in Bath.

But 26-year-old Henry has now decided to switch allegiance to Slovakia, his wife's home nation.

"After Tokyo, I said my next goal would be to defend my title in Paris but also it would mean just as much to go to the next Olympics with Henry," Joe told BBC South East Today.

"Admittedly at the time, I wasn't expecting to be competing for different nations, but it's really great that that's still a possibility."

Joe, 28, has already qualified for next summer's Olympics after winning the World Championships on home soil this year and claiming silver at the European Championships in Poland this summer.

Henry, however, must compete for a place in Paris, and for a nation without an established modern pentathlon set-up.

"It's a bit of a project, and I'm hoping to inspire people to do pentathlon there," Henry said.

"I'll have a better chance to qualify for the Olympics with Slovakia, just because the competition is so fierce in Great Britain, and I guess it will be nice to be the main man."

This would be Henry's first Olympics, but it is likely to be Joe's last, due to the replacement of show jumping with a "Ninja Warrior-style" obstacle course for the LA 2028 games.

It followed controversy after a German coach was seen striking a horse at the Tokyo Olympics.

"I felt we should've looked at improving the animal welfare before removing it completely, there are plenty of things that could've been looked at first," Joe said.

"When you take out such an important element, you have to ask if it is even modern pentathlon anymore."

The UIPM, the sport's international governing body, says it will help guarantee the sport's future, with reduced costs, better participation and accessibility, popularity among the young and attractiveness to global audiences.

But it came despite protests from Pentathlon United, a group of pentathletes that Joe supported, and he said he would step away out of principle following the decision that he felt ignored athletes' concerns.

"It was really disappointing to see how decisions were made and sports politics is run at the top levels," Joe added.

"It was a really difficult year so I took a step back from that because I needed to just get back to the sport that I fell in love with at the beginning.

"It was disappointing and also eye-opening but for me I needed to get back to being an athlete, not an Olympic spokesman."

Henry is currently ranked 165 in the world and is aiming to compete in at least two World Cup events in the lead-up to Paris 2024 to pick up enough ranking points to qualify. The six highest-ranked athletes who have not qualified via other accredited events will secure an Olympic spot.

See the full interview on BBC South East Today from 18:30 GMT on Tuesday.