unbroken-laura-hillenbrand

July, and the Olympic committee would base its selection of
competitors on a series of qualifying races. Louie had
seven months to run himself onto the team. In the meantime,
he also had to figure out what to do about the numerous
college scholarships being offered to him. Pete had won a
scholarship to the University of Southern California, where
he had become one of the nation’s top ten college milers.
He urged Louie to accept USC’s offer but delay entry until
the fall, so he could train full-time. So Louie moved into
Pete’s frat house and, with Pete coaching him, trained
obsessively. All day, every day, he lived and breathed the
1,500 meters and Berlin.
In the spring, he began to realize that he wasn’t going to
make it. Though he was getting faster by the day, he couldn’t
force his body to improve quickly enough to catch his older
rivals by summer. He was simply too young. He was
heartbroken.
——
In May, Louie was leafing through a newspaper when he
saw a story on the Compton Open, a prestigious track meet
to be held at the Los Angeles Coliseum on May 22. The
headliner in the 5,000 meters—three miles and 188 yards—
was Norman Bright, a twenty-six-year-old schoolteacher.
Bright had set the American two-mile record in 1935 and
was America’s second-fastest 5,000-meter man, behind the
legendary Don Lash, Indiana University’s twenty-three-yearold
record-smashing machine. America would send three
5,000-meter men to Berlin, and Lash and Bright were
considered locks. Pete urged Louie to enter the Compton
Open and try his legs at a longer distance. “If you stay with
Norman Bright,” he told Louie, “you make the Olympic
team.”