Considered by many to be the greatest athlete of the 20th century, Jim Thorpe was dealt a very raw deal by the International Olympic Committee. At the Stockholm Olympics of 1912, Thorpe won the gold medal for the United States in the decathlon and the modern pentathlon—two brand new events for the 1912 games. About six months after the games ended, rumors began to circulate about Thorpe's professional sports history. It emerged that Thorpe—like many of his college peers of the era—had played semi-professional baseball during the summer of 1909. Even though the complaint had been brought well beyond the 30-day limit in the IOC's rulebook, the IOC stripped Thorpe of his gold medals.

Many historians now see this decision as a sign of racism directed towards Thorpe, as his era was marked by large racial inequalities aimed towards Native Americans. Thorpe would go on to have a successful college and professional career in basketball, baseball, and football; but his life after retiring from sports was plagued by poverty, alcoholism, and poor health. He died in 1965, near penniless—his wife actually sold his remains to a tourist-seeking town in Pennsylvania in order to pay for his burial. While he never lived to see it, Jim Thorpe was redeemed in 1982, when the campaigns of his family and members of Congress finally paid off. The IOC reinstated Thorpe's amateur status, and presented two of his children with commemorative gold medals.