Doing a crossword today I came across the name of Jim Thorpe. It made me think of what I'd originally learned about Thorpe in school.
Thorpe had a distinguished athletic career in school and outside of it. This led to him competing in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, in the Pentathlon and Decathlon events. He won gold in both events, an impressive achievement by any standard. But when his past playing baseball in the Eastern Carolina League went public, the International Olympic Committee rescinded his medals.
I'd always learned of this as a racist institution dismissing the achievements of a Native American athlete. But there's a problem with this interpretation. The IOC was right. The ban on professional athletes in the Olympics exists, and it's there for a reason, the US's absurd decision more recently to populate its basketball teams entirely with NBA champs notwithstanding. To be fair to Thorpe, the sport he had professionally played in was not an exact match for the Olympic events in which he participated, so there was ambiguity on his end. But the decision was the right one.
What does this prove? Only that rushes to judgment can happen in any direction.
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