Jim Thorpe was basically a real-life Captain America. He was dominant across American football, lacrosse, baseball and track and field at college, before winning gold in both the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. At the All-Around Championship in New York, Thorpe won seven events and came second in the other three, setting a world record points tally. He then played pro baseball for the New York Giants, winning the 1913 National League title, before joining the Canton Bulldogs American football team where he won titles in 1916, 1917 and 1919. He also played basketball in his own travelling team, and won a Ballroom Dancing Championship. A true American hero. Unfortunately Thorpe wasnt always treated as such during his career; when it was found that hed competed semi-professionally before the 1912 Olympics, and despite it having been common for athletes to earn money while competing, strict amateurism rules meant the IOC stripped Thorpe of his two gold medals. Unable to sustain a living after sport, he died aged 64, alcoholic and bankrupt. In 1982, accepting that his medals had been stripped unduly, the IOC Executive Committee posthumously reinstated his Olympic titles, and Thorpe regularly tops polls as the Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century.
