IOC reinstates Jim Thorpe as sole winner of 1912 Olympic decathlon and pentathlon

Jim Thorpe, stripped of his 1912 gold medals as a result of he’d been paid to play minor league baseball, was reinstated Thursday as the only real winner of that yr’s Olympic decathlon and pentathlon by the Worldwide Olympic Committee.

Thorpe, voted the best athlete of the primary half of the 20th century by The Related Press, received the decathlon and pentathlon on the Stockholm Olympics. Nevertheless, as a result of he had performed minor league baseball in 1909-10 — incomes a reported $2 per sport to $35 per week — he was stripped of the medals in 1913 for violating the present amateurism guidelines. The Novice Athletic Union in the USA withdrew Thorpe’s novice standing, and the IOC unanimously stripped Thorpe for being knowledgeable.

The choice has been controversial ever since, particularly to Native American communities. Thorpe was a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, and was the primary Native American to win a gold medal.

After years of lobbying, the IOC Govt Committee reinstated Thorpe in October 1982, however mentioned he was the co-champion with Hugo Wieslander (decathlon) and Ferdinand Bie (pentathlon). On Thursday, he was restored as the only real champion.

“This can be a most distinctive and distinctive scenario,” IOC president Thomas Bach mentioned. “It’s addressed by a rare gesture of honest play from the involved Nationwide Olympic Committees.”

“We’re so grateful his almost 110-year-old injustice has lastly been corrected, and there’s no confusion about essentially the most outstanding athlete in historical past,” mentioned Nedra Darling, the co-founder of Vibrant Path Sturdy, a gaggle created to share Native American voices and a number one group that fought for Thorpe — who died in 1953 — to regain his medals. She can be a citizen of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.

“Jim Thorpe is a hero throughout Indian Nation, and he’s an American hero,” she mentioned. “He represented this nation earlier than it even acknowledged Native Individuals as residents, and he did so with humility and charm. Even after he was wronged by his coach, the American Athletic Union, and lots of others, he by no means gave in to bitterness and led with a spirit of generosity and kindness. I pray that Jim, his household, and our ancestors are celebrating that the reality has been respoken right now, on this 110th anniversary of Jim being awarded his Olympic gold medals.”

A petition on the Vibrant Path Sturdy web site, asking the IOC to reinstate Thorpe as sole champion in each occasions, drew 75,000 signatures.

The information of Thorpe’s reinstatement was first reported by Indian Nation Right now.

Thorpe performed skilled baseball with the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Braves. He returned to soccer with the Canton Bulldogs, and was a member of the NFL’s first all-decade crew in 1931. He retired from skilled soccer in 1928 at age 41 and is a member of the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame.