American Jim Thorpe posthumously reclaimed his 1912 Olympic titles in the pentathlon and decathlon on Friday, nearly 110 years after losing his gold medals for violating amateur rules at the time.
“The name of Jim Thorpe will now appear as the one and only gold medalist in the pentathlon and decathlon”said the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, quoted in the press release from the Olympic body rehabilitating the athlete.
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?? IOC to display the name of Jim Thorpe as sole Stockholm 1912 pentathlon and decathlon gold medallist.
The change comes on the day of the 110th anniversary of Thorpe’s medal in decathlon.
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“It is a completely exceptional and unique situation, which the extraordinary gesture of fair play by the National Olympic Committees concerned has made it possible to resolve”he continued.
A clear victory
Thorpe, then 25 years old, had flown over during the 1912 Stockholm Olympics the pentathlon and decathlon events which were making their Olympic debut.
But the athlete of Native American descent lost his two titles the following year when the ancestor of the American Olympic Committee discovered that he had received money before the Olympics to play baseball.
The Norwegian Ferdinand Bie and the Swede Hugo Wieslander, initially 2es pentathlon and decathlon, were then named Olympic champions.
“Following this decision, the name of Jim Thorpe will now appear as the one and only gold medalist in the pentathlon and decathlon, and those of Ferdinand Bie and Hugo Wieslander as silver medalists”said the IOC.
Thorpe was considered the rightful Olympic champion by his opponents
“The American James Donahue and the Canadian Frank Lukeman will however retain the silver and bronze medals in the pentathlon which had been awarded to them when the results were modified in 1913. The same will apply to the Swedes Charles Lomberg and Gösta Holmer , respectively silver and bronze medalists in the decathlon »said the Olympic body.
This decision by the IOC is the result of a campaign led by the association Bright Path Strong, in reference to the Native American name of Thorpe (Wa-Tho-Huk, Shining Path). The association contacted the Swedish and Norwegian Olympic Committees and the descendants of those who were named Olympic champions after the titles were stripped from Thorpe.
Thus, according to his descendants, “Hugo Wieslander had never accepted the Olympic gold medal awarded to him at the time and had always considered Jim Thorpe to be the rightful Olympic gold medalist”explained the IOC.
The medals returned to his family in 1982
Thorpe died in 1953 at the age of 64. Besides his career in athletics, he has played American football, baseball and basketball and is considered in the United States as “the greatest sportsman of the XXe century “ according to a 2012 poll by ABC television.
In 1982, 29 years after his death, the IOC returned his two gold medals to his children, without however modifying the winners of the 1912 Olympics.
