Louis Zamperini was born to Italian immigrants on January 26, 1917 in Olean, New York. From a high school track star becoming an Olympic athlete and meeting Adolf Hitler, to being taken as a prisoner of war in World War II, Louis Zamperini lived a strenuous life but remained unbroken. Even when Zamperini was young, he had a full life. He was a high school track star at Torrence High School in Torrence, California. Biograhy.com notes that Zamperini set a high school record at Torrence in 1934, “his time of 4 minutes and 21.2 seconds.” No one beat the record for a full twenty years. Zamperini continued to improve his running. In 1936, he went to New York City for the Olympic trials for the 5,000 meter race. While there, he raced against Don Lash, the world record holder in the event. After a hard fight at the trials in New York, Zamperini qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. He trained for only …show more content…
He graduated from USC in 1940. The teenager kept doing what he loved and ran more, getting better at what he did. Zamperini, being faster than before, had another chance to go to the Olympics and try for the gold, but unfortunately for him, World War II started and the Olympics were cancelled.
Once the war started, Zamperini’s civil duty was called to action Biography.com informs that Zamperini was put into the Army Air Corp and “ended up a bombardier on the B-24 Liberator.”. Zamperini enjoyed his time as a bombardier. Zamperini flew in an air craft named “Super Man.” While flying “Super Man” Andrews says he completed a plethora of missions “including a famous December 1942 air raid on Wake Island.” On this mission, the plane was almost out of gas and barely made it back to Midway Atoll From then on , his time in the Army Air Corps only became more life