人们在他的纪念碑上刻下这样一句话：“吉姆·索普，你是世界上最伟大的运动员。”可惜的是，他生前并没得到这样的公认。

Jim Thorpewasaheroafterthe1912's Stockholm Olympic and a sad，bewildered man not too much later.Someone discovered that two years before the Olympics he had been paid a few dollars to play semiprofessional baseball.Though many amateur athletes had played for pay under false names，Thorpe had used his own name.As a result，he was not technically an amateur when he competed at Stockholm as all Olympic athletes must be.His Olympic medals and trophies were taken away from him and given to the runners－up.Both men refused to take them，saying they really belonged to Thorpe.The medals and prizes were then placed in a museum in Lucerne，Swltzer land.The records of Thorpe's victories were removed from the history of the Olympic Games.“I was not very wise in the ways of the world.” said Thorpe，and he then decided to give up amateur athletics for good.

1912年斯德哥尔摩奥运会后，吉姆·索普成了英雄，但没过多久，他就成了一个悲伤和迷惘的人。原来，有人发现，奥运会前两年，他曾经为了几块钱参加过半职业性的棒球比赛。许多业余运动员使用假名参赛赚钱，而索普却用了自己的真名。结果，从技术上讲，他在斯德哥尔摩参赛时，已经不是一名业余运动员了，而根据规定，所有奥林匹克运动员必须是业余选手。于是，他的奥运会奖牌和奖品被收了回去，发给第二名的获得者。那两人都拒绝接受奖牌和奖品。他们说，奖章和奖品实际上应该归索普所有。于是那奖章和奖品就存放在瑞士卢塞恩城博物馆中。索普获胜的记录也从奥运会的历史中删除了。“我对于人情世故不甚通达，”索普说。于是他决定永远放弃业余运动。

索普的崇拜者们曾经多次试图让国会把索普在1912年奥运会上赢得的奖品退还给他，这一计划从未成功。但当体育新闻记者们告诉报纸读者说吉姆·索普没有钱买票去观看在洛杉矶举行的1932年的奥运会，于是成千上万的人便把自己的票寄给这位昔日斯德哥尔摩奥运会上的英雄人物，索普还应邀和美国副总统一起坐在总统席上观赏运动项目。当人们得知他急需医疗费不得不动手术时，从全国各地寄来的赠款使他得到数千美元的基金。

1950年，美联社曾经组织全国的体育专栏作家和体育节目广播员举行投票，其中170人投票选举吉姆为20世纪最伟大的橄榄球明星。据美联社统计在另一次选举中，有393个体育专栏作家和体育节目广播员投票选举他为20世纪前50年里最伟大的运动员。他的总票数几乎和其次的三个当选者的票数之和一样多。

大约70年以后，在1982年10月，国际奥委会决定恢复这位伟大的美国印地安人运动员的业余运动员身份并交还两枚金牌。1983年1月，国际奥委会主席——萨马兰奇先生在洛杉矶亲自把这两枚金牌赠还给索普的女儿和他的孙子威廉·索普。这样吉姆·索普，这位现代最伟大的运动员终于恢复他应得的地位。

Several times，there was an attempt by Thorpe's admirers to have Congress to return to him the trophies he had won in the 1912 Olympic Games.This project was never successful.But when sports reporters told newspaper readers that Jim Thorpe did not have enough money to buy a ticket to the 1932 Olympics，held in Los Angeles，thousands of people offered their own tickets to the man who had been the hero of Stockholm，and Thorpe was invited to sit in the Presidential Box with the Vice-President of the United States.When he had to have an operation in and it became known that he needed money for hospital expenses，gifts of money from all over the country brought him a fund of several thousand dollars.

The Associated Press took a vote in 1950 among the sportswriters and sports radio broadcasters all over the country，and 170 of them voted for Jim as the greatest football starofthe twentieth century.In anotherelection，the Associated Press found that 393 sports writers and broadcasters voted for him as the greatest athlete of the first fifty years of the twentieth century.His total was almost as great as the combined score of the next three men in the pool.

About seventy years later，in October 1982，the International Olympic Committee decided to restore the amateur status and the two gold medals to this great American Indian athlete.And itwasMr.Samaranch，President of the IOC，who personally presented the two medals to Thorpe's daughter and his grandson William Thorpe in Los Angeles in January 1983.Thus，Jim Thorpe，the greatest athlete of the modern times，is finally back where he well deserves to be.