Title: Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the International Olympic Committee should correct Jim Thorpe's Olympic records for his unprecedented accomplishments during the 1912 Olympic Games.
Policy area: Sports and Recreation

Summary:
This resolution expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the International Olympic Committee should officially recognize Jim Thorpe's athletic achievements as the sole Gold Medalist in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon events and correct these inaccuracies in the official Olympic books.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 720 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 720

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 20, 2019

    Ms. Haaland (for herself, Mr. Cole, Mr. Cox of California, Mr. 
Grijalva, Ms. Gabbard, Mr. Heck, Mr. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, Ms. Kendra 
     S. Horn of Oklahoma, Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania, Mr. Larsen of 
   Washington, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. Jackson Lee, Mr. Levin of 
 Michigan, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Mullin, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. O'Halleran, Mr. 
 Perry, Ms. Tlaib, Mrs. Torres of California, and Mr. Young) submitted 
   the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                            Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


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

Whereas November is Native American Heritage Month, when Congress acknowledges 
        the contributions of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native 
        Hawaiians in the United States;
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 won the pentathlon and the 
        decathlon 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 three 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 American athlete 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 two Gold Medals in the 1912 Olympic Games, 
        Native Americans were not recognized as citizens of the United States 
        until 1924 under the Indian Citizenship Act;
Whereas Native Americans were not granted the right to vote in every State until 
        1957;
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 Jim Thorpe's 
        Olympic Gold Medals 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 International Olympic Committee's failure to update their records 
        disregards the unprecedented achievements of one of the best athletes in 
        American history, 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 American history: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the International Olympic Committee, through its president, should 
officially recognize Jim Thorpe's unprecedented athletic achievements 
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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