Louis Silvie Zamperini was an American World War II veteran, an Olympic distance runner and a Christian Evangelist. He took up running in high school and qualified for the United States in the 5,000 m race for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, finishing 8th while setting a new lap record in the process.
Zamperini in 1943
Zamperini wearing a Torrance High School track uniform, 1938
Japanese-occupied Nauru Island under attack by Liberator bombers of the Seventh Air Corps, April 1943.
Zamperini examines a hole in his B-24D Liberator Super Man made by a 20 mm shell over Nauru.
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad and commonly known as Berlin 1936, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona at the 29th IOC Session on 26 April 1931. The 1936 Games marked the second and most recent time the International Olympic Committee gathered to vote in a city that was bidding to host those Games. Later rule modifications forbade cities hosting the bid vote from being awarded the games.
Runners carrying the Olympic Flame
The Olympic village
US track team house at the Olympic village, 2015
Jesse Owens' room at the Olympic village, 2015