Jim Thorpe became the first Olympic champion in the decathlon in 1912.
Thorpe won the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, producing performances that established him as one of the most versatile athletes in Olympic history. King Gustav V of Sweden famously praised him as the greatest athlete in the world.
In 1913, Thorpe was stripped of his medals after the International Olympic Committee learned that he had received small payments for playing semi-professional baseball before the Games. The decision was based on the amateur rules then in force. His Olympic results were restored in 1983, and in 2022 the IOC recognized Thorpe as the sole winner of the 1912 decathlon and pentathlon titles.
The decathlon consists of ten track-and-field events contested over two days. The modern scoring system awards points for performances rather than simply adding raw distances or times, so an athlete’s overall consistency is crucial.