My personal boycott of the Olympics

[panader0]

86. Louis Zamperini--my dad went to USC with this guy, a friend whose treatment by the Japanese

made my dad forever prejudiced against the Japanese. A great man, overshadowed by Jesse Owens in Berlin.
On a personal note: my mom, born 1908, swam in the relays at the LA olympics in'32.
The following is from Wiki:



In the Olympic trials at Randall's Island, Zamperini finished in a dead tie in a heat against world-record holder Don Lash and qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, though neither he nor Lash had much chance of winning the 5000 meter race. Zamperini has related several amusing anecdotes from his Olympic experience, including gorging himself on the boat trip to Europe. "I was a Depression-era kid who had never even been to a drugstore for a sandwich," he said. "And all the food was free. I had not just one sweet roll, but about seven every morning, with bacon and eggs. My eyes were like saucers.” By the end of the trip, Zamperini, in common with most athletes on the ship, had gained a good deal of weight – in Zamperini's case, 12 pounds. While the weight gain was not advantageous for his running it was necessary for his health, as he had lost 15 pounds while training in the summer heat in New York for the Olympic Trials.

Zamperini finished eighth in the 5000 meter distance event at that Olympics, but his final lap of 56 seconds was fast enough to catch the attention of Adolf Hitler, who insisted on a personal meeting.[8] As Zamperini tells the story, Hitler shook his hand, and said simply "Ah, you're the boy with the fast finish."[9] According to a profile on Bill Stern's Sports Newsreel radio program, Zamperini climbed a flag pole during the 1936 Olympic games and stole the personal flag of Hitler.

Two years later, in 1938, Zamperini set a national collegiate mile record of 4:12 which held for fifteen years, earning him the nickname "Torrance Tornado