HARRISBURG — A state representative serving Carbon County intends to introduce a resolution to reinstate Jim Thorpe as the sole gold medal winner of two events in the 1912 Olympic Games.
The resolution would encourage the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to designate Thorpe as the lone champion of the pentathlon and the decathlon events, Rep. Doyle Heffley stated last week.
Thorpe, an attendee of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in the early 1900s, honorably represented the Native American Sac and Fox Nation, and the United States at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden.
He began by winning the pentathlon (long jump, javelin, discus, 200 meter and 1,500 meter), finishing first in every event except for the javelin. He followed that up by finishing fourth in the long jump and seventh in the high jump.
According to the IOC, Thorpe produced an extraordinary performance in the decathlon, which comprised the 100 meter, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400 meter, discus, 110-meter hurdles, pole vault, javelin and the 1,500 meter. In beating his nearest challenger, Sweden’s Hugo Wieslander, by nearly 700 points, he set a new world record of 8,412 points, which stood until 1948.
The IOC later deemed that Thorpe infringed the rules regarding amateurism by playing minor league baseball for Rocky Mount Club in North Carolina in 1909 and 1910, and stripped his titles at the start of 1913.
On Jan. 18, 1983 — some 30 years after his death — the IOC officially reinstated Thorpe’s medals from the 1912 Games at a ceremony attended by two of his children.
“Unfortunately, his gold medals were revoked after it was discovered that he violated strict rules regarding amateurism that were in force at the time,” Heffley said. “These gold medals were not reinstated until … the IOC recognized the improper application of the disqualification procedures.”
Heffley said although the gold medals were reinstated, Thorpe has not been recognized as the sole gold medal winner of the events, rather, he has been recognized as a co-gold medal winner with the athletes who were elevated to gold-medal status after his medals were revoked.
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