in 1994, lundgren starred in bruce malmuth's "pentathlon" as an east german olympic gold medalist pentathlete on the run from an abusive coach (david soul). lundgren trained with the u.s. pentathlon team in preparation for the role, which later led to him being selected to serve as the (non-competing) team leader of the 1996 u.s. olympic modern pentathlon team during the atlanta games, to promote the image of the sport and to coordinate planning and other details between the team and the united states olympic committee. the film was seen negatively by most critics; "film review" said it was "appallingly acted and monotonous" and video movie guide 2002 described it as a "silly cold war thriller".