# Understanding This Resolution About Jim Thorpe's Olympic Records

This is a resolution expressing what the House of Representatives believes should happen regarding Jim Thorpe's Olympic achievements from 1912. It's not a law that forces anyone to do anything—it's more like an official statement of opinion that Congress is sending to the International Olympic Committee (the organization that runs the Olympics).

Here's the situation: Jim Thorpe, a Native American athlete from the Sac and Fox Nation, won two gold medals at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics—one in the pentathlon and one in the decathlon. He was the only athlete ever to win both events in the same Olympic year. However, his medals were taken away decades later because he had played semi-professional baseball before the Olympics, which violated the amateur-only rules that existed back then. In 1982, the International Olympic Committee gave duplicate gold medals back to his family, but they didn't officially list him as the sole winner in the record books—they still credited the original winners from that era.

This resolution is asking the International Olympic Committee to fix their official Olympic records to show Jim Thorpe as the rightful gold medalist for both events. The resolution emphasizes that Thorpe was an extraordinary athlete—he's considered one of the greatest football players in American history and was the first Native American to win Olympic gold for the United States. The House is essentially saying that his achievements deserve to be properly recognized in the official Olympic record books, correcting what they view as a historical injustice. While this resolution doesn't force the Olympic Committee to do anything, it represents Congress formally backing the idea that Thorpe's records should be set straight.

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

Lucas, Frank D.

 <p>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&nbsp;in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon events and correct these inaccuracies in the official Olympic books. </p>