The Native American Who Won Two Olympic Gold Medals – Then Had His Titles Taken Away Before History Finally Reversed The Decision

It was also filed six to seven weeks after the protest deadline, depending on how you counted it.

The Amateur Athletic Union, confronted with the story and the public attention it generated, moved quickly.

Rather than noting that the complaint had arrived after the deadline for challenges, the AAU withdrew Thorpe’s amateur status.

The American Olympic Committee, essentially the same organization in different clothing, referred the matter to the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC, presented with the AAU’s action, voted unanimously to strip Thorpe of his Olympic titles.

The official Olympic report for the 1912 Games would later reveal, as the Gilder Lehrman Institute and other scholars have noted, that even the Swedish organizers were uncertain about the proper procedure — because the protest had clearly arrived after the deadline.