"Most Wonderful Athlete in the World"Stockholm 1912: American Jim Thorpe watches his discus fly through the air. Thorpe was a Native American whose mother gave him the name 'Bright Path'; and he was truly the outstanding athlete of the Games in Stockholm. He won the gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon and was told by the King of Sweden "Sir, you are the most wonderful athlete in the world". Yet within a year he was disqualified and his medals returned, as it was discovered that prior to the Games, Thorpe had coached in a youth camp in the States and received a small remuneration, which put him outside the qualification for Olympic competition. The argument about the decision raged for over seventy years, with several campaigns to have him re-instated. Finally,just before the Games of Los Angeles in 1984, some of Thorpe's descendants gathered at a ceremony and received two gold medals from President Samaranch.
