Opinion | Jim Thorpe was wronged by bigotry. The IOC must correct the record. - The Washington Post

Opinion | Jim Thorpe was wronged by bigotry. The IOC must correct the record. - The Washington Post: Anita%20DeFrantz%2C%20first%20vice%20president%20of%20the%20International%20Olympic%20Committee%2C%20won%20a%20bronze%20medal%20in%20the%20women%u2019s%20eight%20rowing%20competition%20at%20the%201976%20Summer%20Games%20in%20Montreal.%0AFor%20those%20who%20know%20the%20story%20of%20the%20Native%20American%20athlete%20Jim%20Thorpe%20and%20the%201912%20Olympic%20Games%2C%20it%20may%20be%20familiar%20mainly%20as%20an%20example%20of%20how%20the%20elitist%20cult%20of%20amateurism%20a%20century%20ago%20resulted%20in%20one%20of%20the%20most%20egregious%20miscarriages%20of%20justice%20in%20sports%20history.%0ABut%20the%20withdrawal%20of%20Thorpe%u2019s%20gold-medal%20victories%20in%20the%20demanding%20pentathlon%20and%20decathlon%20events%20is%20better%20understood%20as%20a%20stinging%20episode%20of%20early%2020th-century%20bigotry.%0AThe%20posthumous%20return%20of%20Thorpe%u2019s%20medals%20to%20his%20family%20in%201982%20went%20partway%20to%20making%20amends.%20The%20International%20Olympic%20Committee%2C%20of%20which%20I%20am%20a%20member%2C%20should%20go%20the%20rest%20of%20the%20way%20and%20restore%20Thorpe%20as%20the%20sole%20first-place%20finisher%20in%20his%20Olympic%20medal%20events.%20Since%201982%2C%20he%20has%20been%20listed%20by%20the%20IOC%20as%20a%20co-winner%20with%20competitors%20he%20resoundingly%20defeated.%0AJustice%20is%20overdue%20for%20Wa-Tho-Huk%2C%20who%20was%20born%20in%201888%20in%20Indian%20Territory%2C%20latter-day%20Oklahoma.%20The%20name%20chosen%20by%20his%20parents%20%u2014%20his%20father%20belonged%20to%20the%20Sac%20and%20Fox%20tribe%2C%20his%20mother%20to%20the%20Potawatomi%20%u2014%20was%20prophetic.%20Translated%20to%20English%2C%20it%20means%20Bright%20Path.%20For%20the%20convenience%20of%20those%20in%20power%2C%20his%20name%20to%20the%20rest%20of%20the%20world%20was%20James%20Francis%20Thorpe.%0AIn%201904%2C%20the%2016-year-old%20Thorpe%20entered%20the%20Carlisle%20Indian%20Industrial%20School%20in%20Carlisle%2C%20Pa.%20It%20was%20the%20first%20in%20a%20federal%20boarding-school%20system%20designed%20to%20remove%20all%20vestiges%20of%20Native%20American%20children%u2019s%20culture%2C%20including%20language%2C%20religion%20and%20clothing.%20The%20philosophy%20of%20Carlisle%u2019s%20founder%2C%20Army%20officer%20Richard%20Henry%20Pratt%2C%20was%20to%20%u201Ckill%20the%20Indian%2C%20and%20save%20the%20man.%u201D%0A