Stoccolma 1912

The Swedes were to dictate the rules that modernised the Olympic Games. Finally, appropriate facilities, accurate and reduced programmes, rewritten regulations, even the adoption of an automatic timing, made the Swedish Games a milestone in Olympic history. The undisputed hero was the Oklahoma Native American Jim Thorpe, winner of the pentathlon and decathlon. The disqualification that was unjustly imposed a few months later made him one of the most famous athletes in history. Only after his death, in 1982, did the IOC return the medals that had been taken away to his heirs. The youngest winner in Stockholm was Nedo Nadi from Livorno who had just turned 18 when he imposed himself in the foil event.