STOCKHOLM – It has been described as the first major international sports scandal, and still resonates more than a century later.Jim Thorpe, a Native American who seemed to excel at every sport he tried, was seen as one of the world's top athletes after winning gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
Some of his performances went unmatched for decades.The King of Sweden was certainly impressed.“Sir,” King Gustav V told Thorpe, “you are the greatest athlete in the world.”Thorpe was welcomed back to the United States with a ticker-tape parade in New York.