Jim Thorpe Reinstated as Sole Winner for 1912 Olympic Golds

Big Jim Thorpe (C), famed American athlete and former U.S. Olympic great, sets a fast pace for some girls during a "junior olympics" event on Chicago's south side on June 6, 1948. AP Photo

LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Jim Thorpe has been reinstated as the sole winner of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon in Stockholm—nearly 110 years after being stripped of those gold medals for violations of strict amateurism rules of the time.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the change Friday on the 110th anniversary of Thorpe winning the decathlon and later being proclaimed by King Gustav V of Sweden as “the greatest athlete in the world.”