Defeated The Defending Champion

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday today (Wednesday) to an Olympic champion who was born on the same continent where this athlete won that Olympic gold medal.

You should know that our birthday person was born 110 years ago today, but died just one day before turning 30 years old.

This champion competed in one Olympic Games and died less than four years after winning the gold medal.

The defending Olympic champion at our birthday athlete's Olympic event came from the same country as our birthday person.

Forget the hurdles when thinking about an event for our birthday athlete.

Unscramble the following eight letters to give you a clue for our birthday athlete: "Area Link".

Please name this Olympic champion who was born 110 years ago today.

[Olli]

Again, this is not an easy one for most, but I think it might be Gunnar Höckert, who won 5,000m in Berlin IIRC. The defending champion was, I believe, Lauri Lehtinen. Höckert died in the Winter War against the Russians, probably on the Karelian Isthmus, from which comes your clue word.

[DoubleRBar]

Nice job, Olli. It is Gunnar Hockert. Hockert did beat Lauri Lehtinen to win the 1936 Berlin Olympic 5,000. Unfortunately, he was killed the day before his 30th birthday. The top American in that race finished in eighth place (about 24 seconds in back of Hockert). This American runner has an airport in Southern California named for him. Who is this American athlete?

[dukehjsteve]

Louis Zamperini

[DoubleRBar]

Louis Zamperini it is, dukehjsteve. Very well done.