No matter life's challenges, Louis Zamperini would not back down. He persevered beginning to end, causing his name to go down in history in not only the track world for many records broken and reset from his first 880- yard race, to his 2 mile UCLA races, and all the way to the 1936 Olympics, but also for his cling to life throughout a war of hardships. Living in such close proximity to death for 43 days on an open raft in the middle of the ocean only to wind up in a Japanese POW camp until the end of WWII would only strengthen the life of the comradeship between him and other soldiers, pushing him to lead those around him to a world of defiance against a common enemy.