Fascinating People

During the past several years, I have been fortunate enough to meet some fascinating people, and in all cases, they were famous at some point in their life. To be truthful, when I met them, I didn’t know who they were, and they were all just chance encounters. I’m not going to mention any names, but I will detail where I met them and what they accomplished in their life to make them fascinating. See if you can guess who they are. I will only talk about one person per post.
I met this person at my granddaughter’s junior high track meet at a town roughly 90 miles from where I live. I was the first spectator to arrive at the track. (As a side note, I have a little phobia where I have to be the first to arrive at any event. If I’m not, I see myself as being late, which annoys my family to no end.)
An older gentleman approached me and introduced himself. I guessed he was probably 75 to 80 years old, and he was eating a chili dog, and the chili was smeared all over his face. I ashamedly looked around to see if he had a caretaker, and I realized just he and I were in the stands.
He proceeded to tell me his life story. He told me that at one time, he was the fastest man in the United States, and won a gold medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki. He said he was most proud to beat the Russians. He said after he competed in the Olympics, he went to Hollywood, where he became a leading stunt man and appeared in many movies.
I have to admit I wasn’t buying his story, but I was polite and respectfully listened and even asked a few questions and chatted him up. He also casually mentioned that someone had written a book about him.
The next day, I told my daughter about the encounter and told her the man’s name. She immediately looked it up and announced that it was true. Everything he said was true.
Later that day, I found his book on Amazon and purchased it. I have read many biographies about famous people, and I have to admit this is one of my favorites. His history is exceptionally fascinating.