Should be a great feature. Many have forgotten just how legendary Thorpe's achievements were.
Thorpe simply annihilated the World/Olympic Records in both the Pentathlon and Decathlon. He is the only athlete to have won both track disciplines at the Olympics. The Pentathlon (Long Jump, Javelin, 200m, 1500m and Discus) was eliminated after the 1924 Olympics. Thorpe's Decathlon Score would have won Gold in every Olympics through 1936 - the 1936 winner, Glenn Morris (also American), would have taken Silver to Thorpe's 1912 Score (the Olympics were temporarily suspended after 1936 until they were held again in 1948). Jim Thorpe's World Record in the Decathlon would stand for 36 years and would not be broken until 1948 - at the 1948 Olympics by another legendary American athlete, Bob Mathias. They changed the scoring weightings for the 1948 Olympics, such that Mathias' 7,139 points was considered a new World Record that didn't break any record - was just a new standard. Converting Thorpe's score (8,412.95 old weighting) to the new weighting would have yielded him a score around 7,100 - and earned him a Silver Medal over Ignace Heinrich of France who scored 6,974.
Anybody who knows anything about track & field knows how insane it is that Thorpe's Decathalon performance stood as the World Record until 1948 and Bob Mathias' performance (which bested 2nd place by 165 points - a very wide margin) would have barely beat Thorpe's converted score using the 1948 scoring tables. Thorpe's performance converted to 1948 scoring tables is estimated to have barely fallen short of Mathias' performance (Mathias would go on to win Gold at 1952 Olympics as well). Just a mindboggling performance by Thorpe - his Pentathlon Record was never broken.
He also was a multi-year All-American College Football player and considered universally as the best College Football Player in the nation.
He also played MLB for NY Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Braves (same franchise as the current Atlanta Braves).
He played in the inagural NFL - for the Canton Bulldogs - was considered their star player and led them to 3 NFL Championships. He was inducted into the inagural NFL Hall of Fame class in 1961.
Anyone who questions whether he was the greatest athlete to ever live simply doesn't understand the magnitude of his accomplishments relative to the time or how they stood across time - there has never been, and probably never will be again, an athlete with the accomplishments of Jim Thorpe.
Thorpe simply annihilated the World/Olympic Records in both the Pentathlon and Decathlon. He is the only athlete to have won both track disciplines at the Olympics. The Pentathlon (Long Jump, Javelin, 200m, 1500m and Discus) was eliminated after the 1924 Olympics. Thorpe's Decathlon Score would have won Gold in every Olympics through 1936 - the 1936 winner, Glenn Morris (also American), would have taken Silver to Thorpe's 1912 Score (the Olympics were temporarily suspended after 1936 until they were held again in 1948). Jim Thorpe's World Record in the Decathlon would stand for 36 years and would not be broken until 1948 - at the 1948 Olympics by another legendary American athlete, Bob Mathias. They changed the scoring weightings for the 1948 Olympics, such that Mathias' 7,139 points was considered a new World Record that didn't break any record - was just a new standard. Converting Thorpe's score (8,412.95 old weighting) to the new weighting would have yielded him a score around 7,100 - and earned him a Silver Medal over Ignace Heinrich of France who scored 6,974.
Anybody who knows anything about track & field knows how insane it is that Thorpe's Decathalon performance stood as the World Record until 1948 and Bob Mathias' performance (which bested 2nd place by 165 points - a very wide margin) would have barely beat Thorpe's converted score using the 1948 scoring tables. Thorpe's performance converted to 1948 scoring tables is estimated to have barely fallen short of Mathias' performance (Mathias would go on to win Gold at 1952 Olympics as well). Just a mindboggling performance by Thorpe - his Pentathlon Record was never broken.
He also was a multi-year All-American College Football player and considered universally as the best College Football Player in the nation.
He also played MLB for NY Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Braves (same franchise as the current Atlanta Braves).
He played in the inagural NFL - for the Canton Bulldogs - was considered their star player and led them to 3 NFL Championships. He was inducted into the inagural NFL Hall of Fame class in 1961.
Anyone who questions whether he was the greatest athlete to ever live simply doesn't understand the magnitude of his accomplishments relative to the time or how they stood across time - there has never been, and probably never will be again, an athlete with the accomplishments of Jim Thorpe.
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