AAU Supports Bright Path Strong Petition to Amend Thorpe Records

ORLANDO, Fla. (August 25, 2020) – The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), is working with Bright Path Strong and the Jim Thorpe Family on a petition to restore legendary American Indian athlete Jim Thorpe’s status in the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) record book.
 

With well over 47,000 signatures and counting, the petition seeks to amend the Olympic record book to recognize Thorpe as the only athlete to win gold in both the pentathlon and decathlon, as it once did in 1912 before an incorrect interpretation of the IOC rules stripped Thorpe of the title.
 

“We are pleased to support the efforts to petition the IOC for the full restoration of Jim Thorpe in the Olympic record,” said Dr. Roger J. Goudy, AAU President/CEO. “Jim Thorpe, who received the AAU Gussie Crawford Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 for his great impact on amateur athletics, is regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time and was a pioneer of diversity and inclusion in sport.”
 

Hollywood icon Angelina Jolie and Pictureworks Entertainment chairman and Bright Path Strong co-founder, Abraham Taylor, have partnered to produce a forthcoming movie about Thorpe, titled Bright Path, based on the seminal Thorpe biography by Robert Wheeler.  Alaskan Native actor, Martin Sensmeier of Westworld and The Magnificent Seven will be portraying Jim Thorpe.
 

“We’re honored that President Goudy and the AAU are lending their preeminent voices to ours, in inviting the International Olympic Committee to right this wrong,” explained Abraham Taylor. “Correcting the official record to properly recognize Jim Thorpe as the sole champion he was, would send a powerful message to the world that the injustices of the past are no longer acceptable.”
 

At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, Thorpe became the first ever gold-medalist in the pentathlon and decathlon, blowing away the competition by record margins. However, six months after receiving his gold medals in an emotional ceremony in Sweden, Thorpe was disqualified because he had previously played in a summer baseball league and received $2 per game in payment, even though this money never was given to him but sent directly to Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
 

At the time, only amateur athletes were allowed to participate in the Olympic Games and due to the IOC’s strict definition of amateur status, Thorpe was disqualified and stripped of his gold medals in 1913, despite many legitimate protests. It was not until 1982 that it was discovered the IOC had violated the Swedish Rules for that Olympiad regarding the challenging of medal presentations.
 

The gold medals were returned to the late Thorpe’s family by the IOC in 1982. However, to this day the records incorrectly list Thorpe as a co-champion rather than outright winner of the two events. This petition will support the congressional resolution introduced by U.S. Congresswoman Deb Haaland, to compel the IOC to correct Thorpe’s record.
 

The AAU has long championed the reinstatement of Jim Thorpe to his full Olympic status.  In 1973, the AAU restored Thorpe’s amateur status thus clearing the way for vindication by the IOC and in 1997, Keith Noll, national chair of both the AAU’s football and hockey programs, organized a formal ceremony to return Jim’s AAU medals to his family.

The petition to reinstate Jim Thorpe’s status as sole champion of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon can be found at http://s.brightpathstrong.com/aau
 

ABOUT THE AAU:
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is one of the largest- non-profit volunteer sports organizations in the country. Founded in 1888 to establish standards and uniformity in sports, the AAU was the founding member of organized amateur athletics in the United States and prepared athletes to compete in the Olympics up through the late 1970’s (when the USOC was founded). In the 1980’s, the AAU re-focused its efforts to offer grassroots sport programming to youth across the United States. As a multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports programs. The AAU philosophy of “Sports For All, Forever” is now shared by nearly 700,000 members and 150,000 volunteers across 41 sports programs and 55 U.S. districts.
 
ABOUT BRIGHT PATH STRONG:
Bright Path Strong is an organization whose goal is to elevate American Indian voices so they may be heard by the general population.  The stress is on stories of resilience, strength, perseverance, and hope. Our first initiative is the full reinstatement of Jim Thorpe’s Olympic honors.