[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 171 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 171

   Expressing the sense of the Senate that the International Olympic 
  Committee should correct the Olympic records for Jim Thorpe for his 
      unprecedented accomplishments during the 1912 Olympic Games.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 22, 2021

   Mr. Inhofe (for himself and Mr. Lankford) submitted the following 
 resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
                           and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing the sense of the Senate that the International Olympic 
  Committee should correct the Olympic records for Jim Thorpe for his 
      unprecedented accomplishments during the 1912 Olympic Games.

Whereas Wa-Tho-Huk or ``Bright Path'', known as James Francis Thorpe or ``Jim 
        Thorpe'' of the Thunder Clan of the Sac and Fox Nation, was born May 22, 
        1887, on the Reservation of the Sac and Fox Nation in Prague, Oklahoma, 
        and died March 28, 1953, in Lomita, California;
Whereas Jim Thorpe attended the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania and 
        established his amateur football record playing halfback, defender, 
        punter, and place-kicker while a student and was subsequently chosen as 
        Walter Camp's First Team All-American Half-Back in 1911 and 1912;
Whereas prior to the 1912 Olympic Games, Jim Thorpe placed second in the 
        pentathlon at the Amateur Athletic Union National Championship Trials in 
        Boston, Massachusetts;
Whereas Jim Thorpe represented the United States as an enrolled member of the 
        Sac and Fox Nation, the largest of 3 federally recognized Tribes of Sauk 
        and Meskwaki (Fox), in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden;
Whereas at the 1912 Olympic Games, he won a Gold Medal in the pentathlon, became 
        the first athlete from the United States to win a gold medal in the 
        decathlon, in which he set a world record, and became the only athlete 
        in Olympic history to win both the pentathlon and the decathlon during 
        the same year;
Whereas at the time Jim Thorpe won 2 Gold Medals in the 1912 Olympic Games, and 
        not until 1924 under the Indian Citizenship Act, Native Americans were 
        not recognized as citizens of the United States;
Whereas Native Americans were not granted the right to vote in every State until 
        1957;
Whereas Jim Thorpe was a founding father of professional football, playing with 
        the Canton Bulldogs, which was the team recognized as world champion in 
        1916, 1917, and 1919, the Cleveland Indians, the Oorang Indians, the 
        Rock Island Independent, the New York Giants, and the Chicago Cardinals;
Whereas, in 1920, Jim Thorpe was named the first president of the American 
        Professional Football Association, now known as the National Football 
        League;
Whereas Jim Thorpe was voted America's Greatest All- Around Male Athlete and 
        chosen as the greatest football player of the half-century in 1950 by an 
        Associated Press poll of sportswriters;
Whereas Jim Thorpe was named the Greatest American Football Player in history in 
        a 1977 national poll conducted by Sport Magazine;
Whereas because of his outstanding athletic achievements, Jim Thorpe was the 
        first Native American inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of 
        Fame, the Professional Football Hall of Fame, the Helms Professional 
        Football Hall of Fame, the National Native American Hall of Fame, the 
        Pennsylvania Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame;
Whereas the Amateur Athletic Union of 1973 restored the amateur status of Jim 
        Thorpe for the years 1909 through 1912;
Whereas the International Olympic Committee returned duplicates of gold medals 
        won by Jim Thorpe to his family in 1982, but did not list him as the 
        sole gold medal winner for his achievements during the 1912 Olympic 
        Games; and
Whereas the failure of the International Olympic Committee to update the records 
        regarding Jim Thorpe disregards the unprecedented achievements of one of 
        the best athletes in the history of the United States, the only athlete 
        in Olympic history to win both the pentathlon and the decathlon during 
        the same year, the first Native American athlete to win Olympic gold 
        medals for the United States, and the contributions of the Sac and Fox 
        Nation in the history of the United States: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the International 
Olympic Committee, through the president of the Committee, should 
officially recognize the unprecedented athletic achievements of Jim 
Thorpe as the sole gold medalist in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon 
events and correct these inaccuracies in the official Olympic books.
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