The more accurate statement is that all of them were necessary — that the correction required every piece of that combination to come together in the right sequence.

What Cannot Be Said With Certainty — And Why That Matters

The story of Jim Thorpe is one in which the temptation to simplify is constant and understandable.

The simplified version is clean: a great Native American athlete won two gold medals, was robbed of them by institutional racism, and eventually had them restored.

That version is emotionally satisfying and largely directionally accurate.

It is not, however, quite precise enough to be fully true.