110 Years On, International Olympic Committee Decides Jim Thorpe To Win Decades Of Gold

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Friday local time that it will award the gold medal that was due to American athlete Jim Thorpe after he won two gold medals in 1912 which was later withdrawn.

The IOC said it "will further name Jim Thorpe as the sole gold medalist of the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and decathlons. This change coincides with the 110th anniversary of Thorpe's medal in the decathlon."

The Thorpe medal was stripped in 1913 after the US media revealed that the athlete was previously a professional American football and baseball player.

The Amateur Athletic Association (AAU), the predecessor to the United States Olympic Committee, ruled that Thorpe, a Native American and member of the Sac and Fox, had violated amateur rules.

Hugo K. Wieslander of Sweden was then declared the gold medalist of the decathlon and Ferdinand Bie of Norway the winner of the post-race gold medal.

In 1983, 30 years after Thorpe's death, the IOC presented a replica of the gold medal to his family after reinstating him as an amateur athlete and stated that under IOC rules, medal disqualification should take place within 30 days.

A lobby group, Bright Path Strong, named after Thorpe's Indian name, Wa-Tho-Huk or Bright Path, seeks to fully restore the athlete's rights.

They contacted the Swedish and Norwegian Olympic associations, both of which replied Thorpe should be declared the sole gold medalist.

A surviving member of the Wieslander family also insists the Swede "never received the Olympic gold medal that was awarded to him, and has always held the opinion that Thorpe is the only legitimate Olympic gold medalist," the IOC said.

The IOC said that in addition to "Thorpe's current name will be displayed as the sole gold medalist of the post-race and decathlon", silver was awarded to Bie and Wieslander, other medals already awarded would not be revoked.

America's James Donahue and Canada's Frank Lukeman continue to earn the post-race silver and bronze awarded to them in 1913. Two Swedes, Charles Lomberg and Gosta Holmer, remain entitled to silver and bronze decathlons.

King Gustav V presented this medal to Thorpe. The king said to him, "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world."

Thorpe played in the National Football League until the age of 41. He was the first president of the American Professional Football Association which became the forerunner of the NFL. He was also inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

He also played in the Major League Baseball baseball league and was also part of a basketball team.