The achievements of multiple Olympic champions Eric Lemming and Jim Thorpe, who were respectively awarded the World Athletics Heritage Plaque in 2018 and 2021, were publicly recognized on September 17 at Stockholm Sweden’s 1912 Olympic Stadium, where their plaques were unveiled and placed on permanent display.
Sweden’s Lemming, who was one of the first dozen recipients of the Heritage Plaque, and USA’s Thorpe, who was honored on the eve of the Tokyo Olympic Games, were among the standout athletes from the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.
The World Athletics Heritage Plaque is a location-based recognition, awarded for ‘an outstanding contribution to the worldwide history and development of the sport of track and field athletics and of out-of-stadia athletics disciplines such as cross country, mountain, road, trail and ultra-running, and race walking’.
Local Jim Thorpe entrepreneur, Maria Loyd of Artisanal Gifts on Broadway, was invited to witness the historic moment and crafted her own plaques as gifts in appreciation to the City of Stockholm, to Gunilla Lydén, the manager of Stockholm Stadium, and to Christopher Turner, Director of Heritage World Athletics.
The ceremony was organized by the Swedish Central Association for the Promotion of Athletics (SCIF). The two champions were represented by family members including Mary Thorpe (granddaughter) and John Thorpe (grandson) who unveiled the plaques, in the presence of Erik D Ramanathan, the USA Ambassador to Sweden, and other distinguished guests.
“There can be no more appropriate permanent location to display these two Heritage Plaques than in the stadium that witnessed Lemming and Thorpe crown their athletics careers,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said. “These plaques were awarded in the posthumous category of ‘Legend’, which is a description that fits comfortably with their athletics achievements.
“It is with great honor and pride that we see the Stockholm Stadium, the oldest Olympic arena still in use, being awarded these two Heritage Plaques,” SCIF President Rajne Soderberg said. “Their achievements in 1912 are truly legendary and to have them on display in a likewise legendary arena makes a perfect match.
“We at the SCIF, that was the driving force behind the Olympic Games in 1912 as well as building the stadium, are thrilled to see the Stockholm Stadium being one of only two arenas in the world to have received two World Athletics Heritage Plaques.”
‘Greatest Athlete in the World’
Following Jim Thorpe’s victories in the pentathlon and decathlon, he was declared by King Gustav V of Sweden to be the “greatest athlete in the world”. Thorpe easily won the pentathlon by finishing first in four of the five events and he set a world record of 8412 points in the decathlon. However, Thorpe was subsequently disqualified for alleged professionalism.
A long hard-fought battle was waged for Thorpe’s reinstatement. Thorpe died in 1953 and sadly it was only in 1983 that his family received his gold medals. However, while reinstated, Thorpe was recognized only as a co-winner, sharing the Olympic titles with the two athletes who had been elevated to first place after his disqualification. Finally, on 15 July 2022, the battle was won, with Thorpe redeclared the outright 1912 Olympic champion in the pentathlon and decathlon.
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