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Louis Zamperini through the years

Louis Zamperini, 85 when this photo was taken in 2002, runs with the Olympic torch at 27th Street and Western Avenue in Los Angeles.

Louis Zamperini, 85 when this photo was taken in 2002, runs with the Olympic torch at 27th Street and Western Avenue in Los Angeles.  (Richard Hartog / Los Angeles Times)

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The 97-year-old who competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin also served in World War II, becoming a prisoner of war in Japan for two and a half years. He has been named 2015’s Rose Parade grand marshal.

Five times

Louis Zamperini, 89 at the time this photo was taken in 2007, a former USC athlete and track-and-field Olympian, stands next to five Olympic torches he helped carry in five past Olympic games. Zamperini built the stand that holds the torches.  (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Torch bearers

Former Olympians Louis Zamperini, left, and John Naber hold the Olympic torch from the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics in 2011. They were torchbearers in two Olympics and they passed this torch between them in 1984.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Speaker

With Seattle coach Pete Carroll, right, by his side, Olympian and World War II prisoner of war survivor Louis Zamperini speaks at the Winforever event at the Grammy Museum in 2012.  (Susana Capra/ Capra Photography)

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