When Jim Thorpe won all events in the decathlon and was best in three events in the pentathlon, during the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, not every Native American had a citizen status in the United States. Born to parents of mixed-race ancestry, Thorpe was a member of the Sac and Fox Native American Nation, with the name Wha-Tho-Huck (“Bright Path”).

Like others who didn’t fit in the profile that gave birth to the modern Olympics – male, white, Eurocentric – Thorpe had to deal with the ambivalence of glory and discrimination. One year after his victory, the International Olympic Committee revoked his medals, based on allegations he had won money as a baseball player, which was interdicted at the time, but the most probable reason was the racism that governed many institutions at the time.

In 1983, 30 years after his death, the IOC symbolically restored his medals with replicas. Despite this and other honours, such as a 1951 biographical film about his life, starring Burt Lancaster, Thorpe struggled financially most of his life, and died young, at age 65.

Still, he and other Native athletes who were also part of the 1912 Olympics started a path that was later walked by many others, such as Billy Mills, from the Sioux Nation, who won the golden medal in the 1964 Olympics in the 10’000 meters race. During the 2020 Tokyo Games, more than 20 Indigenous athletes from different countries won medals. There wouldn’t be a true celebration across nations and cultures if Native communities were not an integral part of the Olympics, and that is why we must also celebrate the leaders who are making this a reality. #100DaysofSummer