hey i knew about him from sports history but not this

For the first time in 110 years, Jim Thorpe stands alone atop the Olympic podium.
The International Olympic Committee reinstated Jim Thorpe as the sole winner of the gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics.




The decision fully reverses a controversy that had lingered for more than a century. Thorpe easily won both events, the only athlete to ever win both events, but had his medals stripped a year later after the IOC learned he had been paid to play minor league baseball in 1909 and 1910.
As The Oklahoman notes, Thorpe was far from the only Olympic athlete to receive professional money while competing as an "amateur," he was just the only one who didn't use a fake name while doing it.


Because he received a reported $2 per game to $35 per week, Thorpe had his amateur status withdrawn by the Amateur Athletic Union and lost his medals in a unanimous IOC vote. As would be later noted, the IOC violated its own rules in doing so, as no protest was made against Thorpe's eligibility in the 30 days after the Games.



Thorpe went to his grave in 1953 without getting his medals back, and it was only in 1982, 30 years later, the IOC recognized it had acted improperly in taking the medals. Thorpe's medals were restored, but even then he was only identified as the co-champion alongside Sweden's Hugo Wieslander in the decathlon and Norway's Ferdinand Bie in the pentathlon.