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This book tells the incredible and touching story of perhaps the most gifted athlete who ever lived. Born in a cabin on a reservation in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Native American Jim Thorpe rose from obscurity to become the most famous athlete in the world. In the 1912 Olympics, he achieved the unprecedented feat of winning gold medals in the two most grueling tests of all-around athletic excellence: the pentathlon and the decathlon.
Having proven himself the unquestioned king of track and field, Thorpe went on to play both major-league baseball and professional football. In 1950, he was named the greatest football player of the first half of the 20th century.
Sadly, Thorpe was stripped of his Olympic medals on a technicality, and in later life he was forced to take any job he could find to ward off poverty. But nothing could dim the memory of his amazing feats. In 1983 his Olympic medals were restored to his family, and in 2000 ABC Wide World of Sports chose Jim Thorpe Athlete of the 20th Century.
Guided Reading Level: L
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