The HISTORY Channel is throwing spotlight on one of America’s most overlooked sports giants. Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning, a two-hour documentary executive produced by LeBron James, will debut Monday, July 7 at 8 PM ET/PT, diving deep into the life and legacy of the Olympic gold medalist and trailblazing Native American athlete.
Directed by Chris Eyre, the film tracks Thorpe’s rise from the Sac and Fox Nation reservation to the global stage, where he dominated the 1912 Olympics and went on to become a multi-sport phenom across football, baseball, basketball, and track and field. The doc leans heavily into how Thorpe’s story intersects with the American narrative—and how it was long ignored by it.
Jim Thorpe: Lit by Lightning pulls from the athlete’s unpublished autobiography, blending historical footage with recreations, academic insight, and newly conducted interviews. It’s a layered portrait from a team of producers that includes UNINTERRUPTED, INE Entertainment, Five All in the Fifth, and Motion Entertainment.
Thorpe’s Olympic feats—where he became the first Native American to win gold for the U.S.—were only part of the story. His long-delayed recognition and erasure from the record books have been lightning rods in the broader conversation around race, legacy, and belonging in American sports.
