From the desk of Kate Buford
Kate Buford is the author of Native American Son. In light of the Olympics beginning tomorrow, she writes of an Olympic past legend, Jim Thorpe, and today's Olympic excitement.
As the world gears up for Opening Day of the XXX Olympiad, media outlets are pumping out new alarming stories of security snafus in London along with the usual poignant tales of athletes’ life obstacles overcome.
The hype and frenzy are taken for granted now, but when did they begin? When did the world first realize the potential thrill the Games dangle in front of us every four years? That an athlete will come out of nowhere and astonish us with feats of bodily skill we have never seen before.
Though the first Games of the modern Olympic movement were held in 1896 in Athens, it wasn’t until the Fifth Olympiad in Stockholm in 1912 that one athlete – Jim Thorpe – created the model of the Olympic super-star. First he won the classic five-event track and field pentathlon by a huge margin – and then he did the same thing in the new ten-event decathlon.
UNP blog 