Louie Zamperini's Influence

Louie Zamperini lived in Torrance, California. He was born in Olean, New York in January 26, 1917 but his family was from Italy. He had three siblings Pete, Sylvia, and Virginia. Kids gave Louie a hard time at school because he barely spoke English. He was always getting in trouble and began drinking, smoking, and stealing at the age of nine. Parents in his neighborhood didn’t want their kids around him because he was a bad influence. When he was in ninth grade he joined the track team. He didn’t like it because he knew he wouldn’t get to drink or smoke anymore. He was going to quit but his brother Pete, who was an athlete, convinced him to stay in track and he said he would train him. Louie began competing and came in 5th place against all high …show more content…
After a couple of days he came back because he remembered what his brother told him either he stays a bum or he makes something out of his life. He began training again and quit smoking and drinking because it slowed him down. He did well in school and people actually wanted to hang out with him. He beat his brother’s record and won many races in 1st place. He was one of the best college runners in the country. He appeared in newspapers in Torrance and was called the “Torrance Tornado”. His biggest goal was to compete in the 1940 Olympics in Tokyo. He made the Olympic team in 1936 in Berlin and ran besides runners he looked up to. He even got to run in front of Hitler and meet him. Louie was disappointed when he found out that the 1940 Olympics got cancelled because the Japanese had attacked China. Louie was then drafted in 1941 and was in the Army Air corps. He survived many attacks. But while on a mission to find a bomber that disappeared when going to Australia from Hawaii their plane crashed into the ocean. He was stranded for 47 days in the ocean and survived attacks by sharks and bullets from the Japanese. The Japanese then captured