Famed athlete Jim Thorpe has been restored as the sole winner of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon in Stockholm, over a century after being stripped of his gold medals due to strict rules in place at the time.
Thorpe was posthumously reinstated on Friday, the 110th anniversary of his victory in the decathlon, the International Olympic Committee announced. The reinstatement comes after a Bright Path Strong petition that began two years ago advocated to the IOC for Thorpe to be declared the rightful winner.
FIRST WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP, IVANA, DIES AT 73
“We welcome the fact that, thanks to the great engagement of Bright Path Strong, a solution could be found,” IOC President Thomas Bach said, according to the Washington Post. “This is a most exceptional and unique situation, which has been addressed by an extraordinary gesture of fair play from the National Olympic Committees concerned.”
World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, has also agreed to amend its records to reflect that Thorpe won the events.
Thorpe, a Native American athlete for the United States, was stripped of his gold medals months after the games, and his name was removed from the record after it came to light that he had been paid to play minor league baseball in 1909 and 1910, violating amateurism rules in place at the time. The decision to take Thorpe’s medal was criticized, especially by Native American communities.
The two silver medalists in the events, Hugo Wieslander and Ferdinand Bie, were awarded the gold medals despite their reluctance to strip the honor from Thorpe.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In the pentathlon, Thorpe had nearly tripled the score of his closest competitor. In 1982, the IOC reinstated Thorpe as a co-champion with Wieslander and Bie.
Thorpe’s career included stints playing professional baseball with the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Braves, as well as the NFL. He is also a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
