IOC Must Recognize Jim Thorpe Says Anita DeFrantz

(ATR) The IOC should update the record books to properly honor 1912 Olympic champion Jim Thorpe says IOC vice president Anita DeFrantz.

Thorpe, a Native American, was hailed as the world’s greatest athlete by the king of Sweden after winning the decathlon and pentathlon at the Stockholm Games.

The medals were stripped a year later when it was discovered Thorpe had been paid to play baseball for a minor league squad during summer breaks while he was in school. At the time, the IOC demanded that athletes must be amateurs.

Racism was a major factor for Thorpe’s dishonor. It wasn’t until 1982 that the IOC posthumously restored his gold medals, but in the official results Thorpe is still listed as co-winner in both events.

DeFrantz, the senior IOC member in the U.S., has launched a campaign to re-write the IOC record books.

"Justice is overdue for Wa-Tho-Huk,who was born in 1888 in Indian Territory, latter-day Oklahoma. The name chosen by his parents — his father belonged to the Sac and Fox tribe, his mother to the Potawatomi — was prophetic. Translated to English, it means Bright Path. For the convenience of those in power, his name to the rest of the world was James Francis Thorpe," writes DeFrantz in an OpEd published Jan. 14 in the Washington Post.

"Not everyone understands the pernicious nature of discrimination that has been practiced in the United States since the 17th century. As one whose ancestry is African and Native American, I do.

"That is why I believe that Wa-Tho-Huk — a.k.a. Jim Thorpe — must be fully restored to his status as the sole winner of the 1912 decathlon and pentathlon. In this time of reckoning over social justice, I urge my IOC colleagues to do our part by righting this wrong," says DeFrantz in the OpEd.

Reported by Ed Hula.