unbroken-laura-hillenbrand

at Hamburg, a doctor noted that quite a few were
expanding. One javelin competitor had gained eight pounds
in five days. Several wrestlers, boxers, and weightlifters had
eaten themselves out of their weight classes, and some
were unable to compete. Don Lash had gained ten pounds.
Louie outdid them all, regaining all the weight that he’d lost
in New York, and then some. When he got off the
Manhattan, he weighed twelve pounds more than when he’d
gotten on nine days earlier.
——
On July 24, the athletes shuffled from the ship to a train,
stopped over in Frankfurt for a welcoming dinner, and
reboarded the train toting quite a few of their hosts’
priceless wine glasses. The Germans chased down the
train, searched the baggage, repatriated the glasses, and
sent the Americans on to Berlin. There, the train was
swamped by teenagers holding scissors and chanting, “Wo
ist Jesse? Wo ist Jesse?” When Owens stepped out, the
throng swarmed him and began snipping off bits of his
clothing. Owens leapt back onto the train.
The athletes were driven to the Olympic Village, a
masterpiece of design crafted by Wolfgang Fürstner, a
Wehrmacht captain. Nestled in an undulating patchwork of
beech forests, lakes, and clearings were 140 cottages, a
shopping mall, a barbershop, a post office, a dentist’s
office, a sauna, a hospital, training facilities, and dining
halls. A new technology called television was on exhibit in
the village office. There were wooded trails, over which
bounded a multitude of imported animals. The Japanese
athletes were especially taken with the deer and began
feeding them treats in such volume that the Germans