Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics – Men's pentathlon
| Men's pentathlon at the Games of the V Olympiad
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| Date | July 7 | ||||||||||||||||
| Competitors | 26 from 11 nations | ||||||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||||||
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Jim Thorpe |
 United States
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Ferdinand Bie |
 Norway
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James Donahue |
United States
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Frank Lukeman |
 Canada
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The men's pentathlon was a track and field athletics event held as part of the Athletics at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. It was the first time the event was held.
Thorpe's gold medal was stripped by the International Olympic Committee in 1913, after the IOC learned that Thorpe had played semi-pro baseball before, violating Olympic amateurism rules, before the 1912 Games. This moved everyone else up in the rankings. In 1982, the IOC was convinced that the disqualification had been improper, as no protest against Thorpe's eligibility had been brought within the required 30 days and reinstated Thorpe's medals. Bie, Donahue, and Lukeman, however, were declared to still be gold, silver, and bronze medalists, respectively. This made Thorpe and Bie co-champions.
Halt and Waitzer both dropped out of the running, not finishing the 200 metres. After the event was over, only the top 12 athletes advanced to the fourth event, with everyone else eliminated. Scores were recalculated after the eliminations.
Only the top 6 finishers after the discus throw advanced to the final event. Since there was a tie for 6th, both of the 6th-place finishers moved on, making 7 competitors in the 1500 metres. Scores were not recalculated after the second cut.
The tie between Donahue and Lukeman was broken by calculating each athlete's score on the decathlon table, originally deciding between a bronze medal and fourth place. Donahue won, 3475.865 points to 3396.975 points, to take the bronze medal. Thorpe's disqualification in 1913 resulted in Bie being awarded the gold medal, while Donahue and Lukeman moved up to silver and bronze, respectively. When Thorpe's results were reinstated 70 years later, his gold medal status was returned while the other three athletes kept their upgraded placings—resulting in two gold medalists.
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