This is Angela Odell, and you are listening to Real Cool History for Kids, a podcast show featuring history told from a distinctly biblical worldview perspective.

Welcome to an adventure.

Welcome to episode 179 of Real Cool History for Kids.

This episode is for Asher, Corbin, and Title, who wanted to hear the incredible story of a man who showed courage, endurance, and faith in one of the most difficult situations imaginable. This is the story of

Lewis Zamperini. Lewis was born in 1917 in Olean, New York. But he grew up in California. As a boy, Lewis was known for getting

into quite a bit of trouble. He liked to pull pranks and sneak around and do things he wasn't

supposed to do. His parents loved him very much, but they worried about the path

he was on. Lewis had an older brother named Pete, and Pete believed Lewis could do something great

if he could learn to focus his energy in the right direction. So Pete encouraged Lewis to run.

At first, Lewis didn't think running sounded very exciting. But once he started, something amazing,

really amazing happened. He discovered he was really really

really good at it lewis trained hard he ran before school after school and then pushed himself

further and further every day well before long he became one of the fastest runners in his high school.

Then he became one of the fastest runners in the entire country. When Lewis was just 19 years old,

he earned a spot on the United States Olympic team. Isn't that amazing? Can you imagine? He traveled all the way to

Berlin, Germany to compete in the 1936 Olympic Games. This was the time period right before World War

II when Adolf Hitler was the German leader. So we've learned a lot

about him, haven't we? The United States involvement in the 1936 Olympics is a really, really

interesting story, but it's way too long to include it here. So I'll have to make a separate

episode about that. Anyway, Lewis ran in the 5,000

meter race. That's over three miles. He didn't win a medal, but something incredible happened

right towards the end of his race. During his final lap, he ran faster than anyone else on the track, and his speed

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