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IOC reinstates Jim Thorpe as sole winner of 1912 Olympic gold medals

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Posted at 4:21 PM, Jul 15, 2022
and last updated 2022-07-15 16:21:33-04

Considered to be one of the greatest athletes of all time, Jim Thorpe is getting his gold medals back after he was stripped of them in 1913.

The International Olympic Committee announced on Friday that Thorpe would be reinstated as the sole Olympic champion in the pentathlon and decathlon of the 1912 Olympics, which were held in Stockholm.

News of the reinstatement comes on the 110th anniversary of Thorpe’s medal in the decathlon.

The first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the U.S., the IOC stripped the Oklahoma native of the medals after learning that he'd been paid to play minor league baseball in 1909-10, ESPN reported.

At the time, this was was considered a violation of the existing amateurism rule, the Associated Press reported.

This led The Amateur Athletic Union in the United States to withdraw the Oklahoma native's amateur status, and the IOC took his medals, the outlets reported.