The ‘First Celebrity Athlete,’ a Century Before Social Media

Before Deion Sanders or Bo Jackson, there was Jim Thorpe.

More than a century ago, Thorpe was a multisport star, excelling in football, baseball and lacrosse, and winning gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Games. But as a Native American, he faced what many historians considered racial bias when those medals were stripped because he had previously earned modest payment for playing baseball, which the International Olympic Committee said violated amateurism rules.

The I.O.C. agreed to return Thorpe’s medals in 1982, almost 30 years after his death, and last year President Joseph R. Biden Jr. awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was accepted by Thorpe’s granddaughter.

On Monday, a new project by the History Channel, “Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning,” explores the triumphs and injustices of Thorpe’s athletic career. The two-hour documentary was directed by Chris Eyre, a Native American filmmaker, and produced by Uninterrupted, a media company co-founded by LeBron James.

In an interview with The New York Times, Eyre discussed the creative process and how he sees Thorpe’s legacy playing out today. Excerpts from the conversation have been edited for length and clarity.

Why was now a good time to do this project?

I had heard about Jim Thorpe ever since I was a kid, and I felt like his name — I didn’t want it to fade from the consciousness because he’s one of the greatest Americans that ever lived and he’s the greatest athlete ever. I jumped at getting to make something.