unbroken-laura-hillenbrand

he felt a tug of regret. He felt too fresh. Had he run his
second lap faster, he said, he might have clocked 4:18. A
reporter predicted that Louie’s record would stand for twenty
years. It stood for nineteen.
Louie and Pete. Bettmann/Corbis
Once his hometown’s resident archvillain, Louie was now a
superstar, and Torrance forgave him everything. When he
trained, people lined the track fence, calling out, “Come on,
Iron Man!” The sports pages of the Los Angeles Times and
Examiner were striped with stories on the prodigy, whom
the Times called the “Torrance Tempest” and practically
everyone else called the “Torrance Tornado.” By one report,
stories on Louie were such an important source of revenue
to the Torrance Herald that the newspaper insured his legs
for $50,000. Torrancers carpooled to his races and