On the 110th anniversary of Jim Thorpe’s dominant 1912 Olympics performance, the International Olympic Committee restored the athlete’s status Friday as the sole winner of the pentathlon and decathlon in Sweden.

The IOC stripped Thorpe of the medals in 1913, saying he had been paid to play minor league baseball before the Olympics took place. The committee’s own bylaws, however, stated grievances had to be filed within 30 days. The challenge to Thorpe’s victories took six months.

In 1982, 29 years after Thorpe’s death, the IOC gave duplicate gold medals to his family, but his Olympic records were not reinstated, nor was his status as the sole gold medalist of the two events.

Thorpe’s grandson John found out the news Thursday night.

“I could hardly sleep,” John said in an interview from Honduras on Friday afternoon. “We’ve all waited so long for this and we’re ecstatic. I just hope the war is over now and nothing else pops up. My grandpa doesn’t necessarily rest easy, and I just hope this puts everything to bed.”

The campaign for change

Two years ago, a Bright Path Strong petition advocated declaring Thorpe the outright winner of the pentathlon and decathlon in 1912.

“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 an Associated Press story. “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.”

Thorpe’s Native American name, Wa-Tho-Huk, means “Bright Path.” The organization with the help of IOC member Anita DeFrantz had contacted the Swedish Olympic Committee and the family of Hugo Wieslander, who had been elevated to decathlon gold medalist in 1913.

“They confirmed that Wieslander himself had never accepted the Olympic gold medal allocated to him, and had always been of the opinion that Jim Thorpe was the sole legitimate Olympic gold medalist,” the IOC said, adding that the Swedish Olympic Committee agreed.

“The same declaration was received from the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, whose athlete, Ferdinand Bie, was named as the gold medalist when Thorpe was stripped of the pentathlon title,” the IOC said.

Bie will be listed as the silver medalist in the pentathlon, and Wieslander with silver in the decathlon.

State Rep. Doyle Heffley sponsored a house resolution in 2020 advocating for the reinstatement of Thorpe as the sole gold medal winner of the two 1912 events.

“I got to meet John Thorpe over the years, and he was very passionate about getting this injustice corrected for his grandfather,” Heffley said. “They came to the Capitol in Harrisburg for a day and talked with a lot of people. It was a bipartisan resolution and I’m glad the IOC has made this decision today.”

World Athletics is honoring Jim Thorpe with a heritage plaque in Sweden in September and John Thorpe will be in attendance.

“I think that event, along with the 110th anniversary and an accumulation of a lot of things led to the IOC’s decision to finally get this right,” John said. “I’ve been to grandpa’s mausoleum almost every day praying and using the sage and apparently all of those prayers have been answered.”

Long time coming

“It only took 110 years for all these bureaucrats to get it right,” Jack Kmetz, president of the Jim Thorpe Area Sports Hall of Fame, said regarding Friday’s announcement. “They just didn’t do this man any justice whatsoever. They didn’t do it when he won. He wasn’t accepted then because he was a Native American. He was the greatest athlete in the world and he could not get a job in the United States.”

John Thorpe is far from the only family member who has advocated for the IOC to “do the right thing” regarding the gold medal status.

Grace Thorpe, Jim’s daughter, along with his grandson Michael Koehler, fought tirelessly for him over the years, Kmetz said.

“I wish his daughter Grace was alive to see this,” Kmetz added. “She was the one who was keeping her father’s legacy alive. She was the one who actually got the medals in 1982. Michael was also a huge spokesman for the family. I’m sure resting a little easier now knowing what just took place.”

Asked what his grandfather would say about the IOC’s decision, John Thorpe answered, “what took you so long?”

The 1912 games

In the 1912 games, Thorpe won the pentathlon, finishing first in the long jump (7.07 meters), first in the 200-meter dash (22.9 seconds), first in the discus (35.57 meters), and first in the 1,500-meter race (4:44.8), and third with a 46.71-meter throw in the javelin.

The next day, Thorpe finished fourth in the high jump (1.87 meters), and four days later, he finished seventh in the long jump (6.89 meters).

His best effort, however, came in the decathlon. Thorpe finished first in the shot put (12.89 meters), the high jump (1.87 meters), the 110-meter hurdles (15.6 seconds) and the 1,500-meter race (4:40.1).

Swedish King Gustav V, patron of the Games of the V Olympiad, later told Thorpe, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.”

Local Connection

After his death in 1953, Thorpe’s widow, Patricia, approached Times News editor Joe Boyle with the suggestion of uniting the two towns, bringing her husband’s body there, and renaming the consolidated town Jim Thorpe. It would be a fitting tribute, she said, and memorial to her husband as well as a drawing card to attract guests to the area. The two towns united in 1954. On Memorial Day 1957, Thorpe was laid to rest above ground in a 20,000-pound red granite mausoleum paid for by a special “Nickel A Week” fund.

“I think the town has just done a fabulous job in honoring and remembering the greatest athlete of that time,” Heffley said. “It means a lot for the local community to see him get his proper respect that he deserves.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.