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  • 2019-01-25 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Jim Thorpe Wear Mismatched Shoes at the 1912 Olympics? (en)
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  • An image purportedly showing Jim Thorpe, the first Native American athlete to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States, wearing a pair of mismatched shoes is frequently shared on social media. It is often accompanied by the claim that Thorpe found the unusual footwear in the garbage after his shoes went missing shortly before a competition at the 1912 Olympics. For example, here's how a Facebook user captioned the image in a viral January 2019 post: This photograph does indeed depict Jim Thorpe wearing mismatched shoes shortly before competing at the 1912 Olympics. Thorpe participated in 15 events during the 1912 Summer Games and won eight of them, leading to his capturing gold medals in both the pentathlon and decathlon. His feat was all the more remarkable for his having contested several of those events wearing mismatched shoes. Here's how the Smithsonian describes Thorpe's performance during the 1912 Olympics: Bob Wheeler, founder of the Jim Thorpe Foundation and author of the biography Jim Thorpe: The World's Greatest Athlete, appears to have been the first to uncover the back story behind this photograph. Wheller conducted more than 200 interviews with teammates, family members, and friends of Jim Thorpe before publishing his book in 1979. According to Wheeler, Thorpe's shoes went missing a few minutes before the start of the 1500-meter race portion of the decathlon. A teammate reportedly lent one shoe to Thorpe and he found another in the garbage. As one shoe was too big, Thorpe had to wear extra socks to tighten up the fit. Here's a video of Wheeler speaking about the incident (we've transcribed the relevant portion below): While Jim Thorpe is considered by some to be one of the greatest American Olympic athletes of all time, his records (and medals) are not officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Thorpe was discovered to have played some semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, violating the IOC's code of strict amateurism, and he was therefore subsequently stripped of his medals: (en)
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