Maine Native American runner profiled in museum
OLD TOWN, Maine—One of Maine's great athletes is getting some national recognition this summer, 100 years after he just missed the medal stand in the 1912 Olympics.
Andrew Sockalexis of the Penobscot Nation was 20 years old and had only been running in major races for about a year when he finished fourth in the 1912 marathon in Stockholm, Sweden.
The Portland Press Herald reports that he is one of five athletes profiled in an exhibit about native American athletes at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington.
Maine author Ed Rice, who has written a biography of Sockalexis, says he was a phenomenal runner with enormous potential. But Sockalexis contracted tuberculosis a few years after his Olympic run and died at age 27.
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Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com
