One of the details about Jim Thorpe’s 1912 decathlon that stops the reader and demands a moment of attention is this: his world record in the event, set that July afternoon in Stockholm, was not broken until 1948.

Thirty-six years.

Two world wars.

The entire transformation of amateur athletics as an institution, the gradual improvement of training methods and equipment and nutrition science that characterize the mid-century period of sport — none of it was enough to surpass what a twenty-four-year-old Sac and Fox athlete did in Stockholm without a decathlon coach, without specialized decathlon training, and apparently without having competed in the event before.

The 1,500-meter run that closed the decathlon — the event that determines the outcome of close competitions because the longer the distance, the more it exposes training gaps — Thorpe ran in four minutes and 40.1 seconds.