Paavo Nurmi

(click to enlarge)
Paavo Nurmi, 1931. (credit: UPI)

(born June 13, 1897, Turku, Fin. — died Oct. 2, 1973, Helsinki) Finnish track athlete. The outstanding long-distance runner of his generation, he captured nine gold medals and three silver in three Olympic Games (1920, 1924, 1928), setting two records at the 1924 games in a little over an hour. He held the world record for the mile run for eight years (1923 – 31). For his prowess he was nicknamed "the Flying Finn."

For more information on Paavo Johannes Nurmi, visit Britannica.com.

Paavo Nurmi (1897-1973) was one of the greatest distance runners of all time. Known as "The Flying Finn" and "The King of Runners," he dominated long-distance running throughout the early part of the twentieth century, setting 25 world records at distances from 1,500 meters to 20,000 meters and winning nine gold and three silver medals at three Olympic Games from 1920 through 1928.

Born on July 13, 1897 in Turku, a port town on the southwest coast of Finland, Nurmi was the son of a carpenter and began running through the Finnish forests when he was nine. He later claimed that he grew up eating black bread and dried fish. If he did, this meager diet made him a champion. His father died in 1910 and Nurmi finished his schooling with an average of 9.38 out of a possible 10. He worked on docks and was a filer in an engineering shop for the next four years.

Nurmi was inspired to become a runner by the incredible performance of Finnish runner, Hannes Kolehmainen, at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. Kolehmainen brought his small country to international attention by winning three gold medals in long-distance events. Nurmi was 15 years old at the time. He soon bought his first real pair of running shoes and started training.

Disciplined Training

Nurmi was one of the first athletes ever to take a systematic approach to training. Although this approach is common today, in Nurmi's time no one had yet thought to train with a stopwatch to measure pace and time, or to cross-train by combining running, walking, and calisthenics. His major innovation in training was to run most of the race at an even pace. Because he ran with a watch, Nurmi, unlike other athletes, knew what his pace was while he was running and could plan his winning strategy. Before this, runners had run fairly slow laps around the track, conserving their strength until the last lap when they sprinted to the finish. The Sports Museum Foundation of Finland quoted him as saying, "When you race against time, you don't have to sprint. Others can't hold the pace if it is steady and slow to the finish."

Nurmi's discipline took precedence over everything else in his life. "Success in sport as in almost anything comes from devotion," he said, according to Joe Brady in Virtual Finland, "The athlete must make a devotion of his specialty." Nurmi certainly did that, critically analyzing his daily training schedule, combining long, slow runs and long walks. Obsessed with running, he seemed to observers not to have any personality at all. Nurmi appeared to be a remote, cold, and inhuman running machine. He did not socialize with other athletes, never gave interviews, disliked publicity, and seemed never to let anyone get to know him, throughout a long career.

As Brady noted, "Nurmi was an introvert. To many observers he seemed bleak and remote, interested only in his running." Nurmi's inward intensity was a part of his personality, but also came from the fact that he was determined to leave records that would never be broken. According to the Sports Museum Foundation of Finland, Finnish journalist Martti Jukola wrote of him in 1935: "There was something inhumanly stern and cruel about him but he conquered the world by pure means: with a will that had supernatural power."

Began to Race

In 1914, Nurmi joined Turun Urheiluliitto, a Turku sports club that he represented throughout his career. On May 29 his training paid off-running at Turku, he set his first national record by running 3000 meters in 8 minutes, 36.2 seconds. There were no Olympic Games in 1916 because of World War I, but in 1920 Nurmi ran at the Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. In the 5,000 meters, his first race, he lost to Joseph Guillemot of France. This would be the only defeat to a foreigner in an Olympic final during his entire career. He won gold medals in the 10,000 meters and the individual and team cross-country events, and a silver in the 5,000 meters.

After the Antwerp Olympics, Nurmi continued to win. He set his first world record on June 22, 1921, in Stockholm by running the 10,000 meters in 30 minutes, 40.2 seconds. After that, he set a new world record in distances ranging from 1,500 meters to 10,000 meters, racing with his stopwatch in hand, adhering to a rigid schedule he had planned beforehand. Instead of concerning himself with what his competitors were doing, Nurmi was more concerned with meeting his own high goals, set by his watch. By the end of 1923, Nurmi held world records in the mile, the 5,000 meter, and the 10,000 meter races, a feat that has never been done before or since.

At the 1924 Paris Olympics, the Flying Finn won five gold medals in six days. Nurmi won the 1,500 and the 5,000 meters within an hour of each other, won the cross-country race as an individual and as part of a team and won the 3,000-meter team race. In the 1,500-meter event, he ran 800 meters in 14:31:2, killing all opposition by effectively winning long before the race was over. He was so confident that he tossed his stopwatch onto the grass and cruised easily to the finish. In the 5,000 meters, he tried a different tactic. His rivals, Ville Ritola of Finland and Edvin Wide of Sweden, started with a fast pace. Nurmi ran steadily 40 meters behind them, waited for them to fade (meanwhile checking the pace with his watch), and then passed them. In the cross-country race, he stunned everyone with his seemingly superhuman performance-on a day so hot and humid that 24 of the 39 entrants collapsed along the way, Nurmi seemed untouched and won the race by two minutes.

In that same Olympiad, Finnish authorities barred Nurmi from competing in the 10,000 meters because they wanted to give Finnish runner Ville Ritola a chance to win a gold. This angered Nurmi, so he went to another track and ran alone, recording his time on his stopwatch. It was faster than the official time set by the gold medal winner.

American Tours

In 1925, Nurmi embarked on a tour of the United States, running mostly on indoor tracks. In five months, he raced 55 times, won 53 of the races, lost once, and opted out of the race once.

Perhaps this tour tired him because Nurmi lost some of his edge. He began winning by shorter margins and he never bettered the three world records he had set in 1924 in the 1,500, 5,000, and 10,000-meter events. Despite the decline, Nurmi went to the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. If he performed well, it would open the door for him to enter the potentially lucrative American track circuit.He won a gold medal in the 10,000 meters and took silver in the 5,000 meters and the 3,000 meters.

According to the Sports Museum Foundation of Finland, when he was 31, Nurmi told a Swedish newspaper reporter, "This is absolutely my last season on the track. I am beginning to get old. I have raced for fifteen years and have had enough of it." Nevertheless, he continued to run and, in 1929, went on his second American tour. By 1930, he had regained some of his old energy and form and set world records in six miles and in 20 kilometers.

Barred from Olympic Competition

In 1932, Nurmi headed for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, determined to defend his 10,000 meter record against rivals. He also hoped to win a gold medal in the marathon, just as his hero Hannes Kolehmainen had done in 1920. The IAAF barred him from Olympic competition because, they claimed, he was no longer an amateur: he had been paid travel expenses for a tour through Germany in 1925. At that time, athletes could only compete in the Olympics if they had not made money from their sport, so Nurmi was out.

Nurmi went to Los Angeles anyway, stayed in the Olympic village and kept training. Runners who saw him reported that he suffered from a foot injury and was barely able to walk. However, his determination was so great that Nurmi ran anyway. Other runners scheduled to compete in the marathon pleaded with IAAF officials to let Nurmi run, but their pleas were ignored. Barred from running, Nurmi could not bring himself to watch the 10,000 meters or the marathon. He later claimed that, if allowed to compete, he would have won the marathon by five minutes.

Last Race

Because he had competed as a professional runner, Nurmi was no longer allowed to compete in international amateur events. In Konigsberg, Germany, on October 4, 1931, he won his last event outside Finland, a 5,000-meter race. He continued to run in Finland after that, and was known as the "national amateur." He ran his last race in Viipuri, Finland, on September 16, 1934, winning the 10,000 meters.

After retiring from running, Nurmi became a businessman and building contractor. He had saved and invested his money since the 1920s and now made a great deal more, mostly through house building; 40 townhouses that his company built are still standing in Helsinki today. In addition to business, Nurmi sometimes trained other Finnish runners. He hated publicity, but when World War II began and Finland was threatened by the Soviet Union, he went to the United States to gain support for the Finnish cause.

Lighted the Olympic Flame

In 1952, the Olympic Games were held in Helsinki. As was the tradition, a relay of runners had carried a torch with the Olympic flame from Greece to Finland. No one new who the last runner would be, the one who would bring the torch into the stadium to light the Olympic flame for these Games. When the electric scoreboard flashed, "The Olympic torch will be brought into the stadium by Paavo Nurmi," the 70,000-person home crowd was stunned into silence. Then a huge roar filled the stadium and many Finns burst into tears.

Nurmi worked hard all his life and never retired, although an attack of coronary thrombosis slowed him down in the late 1950s. In 1967, he experienced another attack. The following year, he used his hard-earned money to set up a foundation to study that disease, providing buildings for the researchers to do their work and a large sum of money.

Nurmi died in Helsinki on October 2, 1973. On October 11, he was given a state funeral with full honors and was buried in his hometown of Turku. Since his death, statues of him have been erected all over Finland and at the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Switzerland. Medals and stamps have been issued in his honor and an asteroid was named after him. In 1987, Finland issued a ten-mark note with Nurmi on one side and the Olympic stadium on the other, making Nurmi the only Olympic athlete ever to be pictured on any nation's currency.

Further Reading

"The Little Giant of the Olympics," Welcome to Finland, http://www.publiscan.fi/wtf7c.htm (February 23, 1999).

"Nurmi Breaks Two World Records," Media One Express, http://www.mediaone.net/fresno/explore/thisday/0106.html (February 23, 1999).

"Nurmi: The Original 'Flying Finn'," ESPNET Sports Zone, http://espn.go.com/editors/atlanta96/features/nurmi.html (February 23, 1999).

"Paavo Nurmi," IAAF, http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/legends/PaavoNurmi.html (February 23, 1999).

"Paavo Nurmi," Paavo Nurmi Background, http://paavonurmi.weppi.fi/background.htm (February 23, 1999).

"Paavo Nurmi," Virtual Finland, http://www.vn.fi/vn/um/finfo/english/paavo.html (February 23, 1999).

"Paavo Nurmi 100 Years: Paavo Nurmi," Sports Museum Foundation of Finland, http://www.stadion.fi/PAAVONURMIMI100/life.htm (February 23, 1999).

"Paavo Nurmi 100 Years: Paavo Nurmi as Seen by Others,"Sports Museum Foundation of Finland, http://www.stadion.fi/PAAVONURMIMI100/seenby.htm (February 23, 1999).

"1932-Los Angeles, California, USA, Timeblazers, http://www.timeblazers.com/Olym1932.html (February 23, 1999).

Olympic medalist
Nurmi at the 1920 Summer Olympics.
Medal record
Men's athletics
Competitor for  Finland
Olympic Games
Gold	1920 Antwerp	10000 m
Gold	1920 Antwerp	8000 m cross country
Gold	1920 Antwerp	8000 m cross country team
Gold	1924 Paris	1500 m
Gold	1924 Paris	5000 m
Gold	1924 Paris	5000 m cross country
Gold	1924 Paris	5000 m cross country team
Gold	1924 Paris	3000 m team
Gold	1928 Amsterdam	10000 m
Silver	1920 Antwerp	5000 m
Silver	1928 Amsterdam	5000 m
Silver	1928 Amsterdam	3000 m steeplechase

Statue of Paavo Nurmi in front of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium

Paavo Johannes Nurmi ( pronunciation (help·info)) (13 June 1897 – 2 October 1973) was a Finnish runner. Born in Turku, he was known as one of the "Flying Finns"; a term given to him, Hannes Kolehmainen, Ville Ritola and others for their distinction in running. During the 1920s, Nurmi was the best middle and long distance runner in the world, setting world records at distances between 1500 m and 20 km.

Nurmi won a total of nine gold and three silver medals in the 12 events in which he competed at the Olympic Games from 1920 to 1928. In 1932, Nurmi was unable to compete at the Olympics, as he had received money for his running and was thus considered a professional.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Olympic career 1.2 A "professional" 2 Trivia 3 References 4 External links

Career

Olympic career

Nurmi debuted at the 1920 Summer Olympics by competing in four events. He won three gold medals: the 10,000 m, the cross country event and the cross country team event, and finished second in the 5000 m.

In 1924, he won five gold medals in five events, including the 1500 m, 5000 m (with only 26 minutes between the final races; as a try out he had broken the world record in both of these events earlier the same year, the 3000 m team race, and again both cross country events. It was the last time these cross country events were held, as the great heat caused more than half of the competitors to abandon the race, and many more had to be taken to hospital. Finnish officials, fearing for his health, refused to enter Nurmi in the 10,000 m event. Thus, he was unable to defend his title. An angry Nurmi protested after returning to Finland by setting a 10,000 m world record that would last for almost 13 years.

Nurmi ended his Olympic career at the 1928 Summer Olympics, winning the 10,000 m and two silver medals (5000 m and 3000 m steeplechase).

Nurmi has won the most Olympic medals in Track & Field, 12 total. He ties Larissa Latynina, Mark Spitz, and Carl Lewis^[1] with nine Olympic gold medals, second only to Michael Phelps with fourteen.^[2] Due to this fact, he is often considered the greatest Track & Field athlete of all time.

During his competitive running career, which lasted from about 1919 to 1934, Nurmi earned a reputation for speaking very little off the track. An illustration of this was his two-word reply to a congratulatory speech during his 1925 tour of the United States: "Thank you!". In contrast to another famous early 20th-century Finnish Olympic running champion, Hannes Kolehmainen, he also rarely smiled in public. No wonder he was nicknamed "A Great Silent One" (Suuri vaikenija) by some contemporary Finns (see, for example, Antero Raevuori, "Paavo Nurmi: The King of Runners" / Paavo Nurmi: Juoksijoiden kuningas, published in Finland in the late 1980's).

A "professional"

Nurmi continued to run after the Olympics in Amsterdam with every intent to compete in the 10,000 m and marathon events at the 1932 Summer Olympics, but he was branded a professional and barred from running in Los Angeles. The main conductors of the ban were the Swedish officials, especially Sigfrid Edström, the president of the IAAF and vice-president of the IOC. Edström claimed that Nurmi had received too much money for his travel expenses to a meet in Germany. This was seen as jealousy by many in Finland and in part led to Finland refusing to participate in the traditional Finland-Sweden international athletics event Suomi-Ruotsi-maaottelu or Finnkampen until 1939 (see Raevuori, "Paavo Nurmi").

However, Nurmi did travel to Los Angeles and kept training at the Olympic Village. Despite pleas from all the entrants of the marathon, Nurmi was not allowed to compete at the Games. Although he had suffered from injuries, he claimed he would have won the marathon by five minutes after the event was over. He had set his heart on ending his career with a marathon gold medal, as his fellow countryman Hannes Kolehmainen had done shortly after the First World War (see Raevuori, "Paavo Nurmi").

A Finnish national hero, Paavo Nurmi was the lighter of the Olympic Flame at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. In retirement he ran a haberdashery store in Helsinki, and owned a housing construction company which built several houses and apartment buildings around Helsinki (see Raevuori, "Paavo Nurmi").

Nurmi had a brief marriage with Sylvi Nurmi, from 1932 to 1935. Their son Matti was a Finnish national-level middle-distance runner in the 1950's. Nurmi was a loner for much of his life, and apparently he either was scared of too close friendships or had a too inflexible character for them. In his final years, starting around 1967, when he allowed the Finnish President Urho Kekkonen (a personal and sports friend)to interview him for his 70th birthday over the Finnish Public Radio YLE, Nurmi gave more newspaper and magazine interviews. Suffering from health problems especially since the late 1960's, with at least one heart attack, a stroke and failing eyesight, he at times spoke bitterly about sports, calling it a waste of time compared to science and art (see Raevuori, "Paavo Nurmi"). Nurmi died in 1973 in Helsinki and was given a state funeral.

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2007)

• Nurmi toured the United States in 1925 and competed in 55 events (45 indoors and 10 outdoors) during a five-month period. He broke 39 world records (most of them unofficial world records) and won 53 of the events. He abandoned one race and lost only an 880-yard sprint to the home country's star half-miler Alan Helffrich. The tour made Nurmi immensely popular in the USA.
• In his career Nurmi broke 22 official world records, ranging from the 1,500 to 20,000 meters.
• Personal Bests included 3:52.6 (1,500 meters, 1924), 4:10.4 (mile, 1923), 14:28.2 (5,000 meters, 1924), and 30:06.2 (10,000 meters, 1924). These were all world record performances.
• Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä named an asteroid after Nurmi in 1939; 1740 Paavo Nurmi.
• Nurmi was a vegetarian from the age of 12. ^[3]
• An annual Paavo Nurmi Marathon has been held in Northern Wisconsin, USA since 1969. An event with the same name has also been held in Turku, Nurmi's home town, since 1991.
• Nurmi was mentioned in the 1974 novel Marathon Man, as the idol of the protagonist. In the movie adaptation he was replaced with Abebe Bikila. However in the film Nurmi's runner picture can be seen on the main character's wall.
• A widely publicized practical joke by students at the Helsinki University of Technology took place in 1961, when a team of students smuggled a statue of Nurmi onto the 300-year-old wreck of the Swedish Regalskeppet Vasa just days before its lifting from the bottom of the sea^[4]
• Nurmi never raced without a stopwatch in his hand, although he occasionally tossed it aside after building up a sufficient lead on his opponents.
• There is a Paavo Nurmi Gymnasium at Finlandia University, Hancock, Michigan, USA.
• On the unveiling of a statue of him in Turku, which featured him running but without clothing in typical olympics statue fashion, Nurmi's only comment was "I don't run naked."
• There is also a training system named after him. It is also tied to the Paavo Running Camps held across the US each summer.
• In The Simpsons episode "Goo Goo Gai Pan," Mr. Burns mentions that his aging car once out raced Paavo Nurmi.

References

1. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080812/ts_nm/olympics_dc_136
2. ^ Wallechinsky, David; Jaime Loucky (2008). The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2008 Edition. Aurum Press. pp. 1178. ISBN 978-1-84513-330-6. 
3. ^ Seiro, Arno; Jari Väliverronen (2007-06-22). "HS etsii Suomen merkittävintä urheilusaavutusta" (in Finnish). Helsingin Sanomat. http://www.hs.fi/urheilu/artikkeli/HS+etsii+Suomen+merkitt%C3%A4vint%C3%A4+urheilusaavutusta/1135228213483. Retrieved 2008-05-14. 
4. ^ Ilta-Sanomat 5 July 1961 "Vasan veijarit", scan available at archive.org dump of ttky.fi.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paavo Nurmi

• Paavo Nurmi 100 years

Records
Preceded by John Zander	Men's 1,500 m World Record Holder 19 June 1924 – 11 September 1926	Succeeded by Otto Peltzer
Preceded by Norman Taber	Men's Mile World Record Holder 23 August 1923 – 4 October 1931	Succeeded by Jules Ladoumègue
Preceded by John Zander	Men's 3,000 m World Record Holder 27 August 1922 – 7 June 1925	Succeeded by Edvin Wide
Preceded by Edvin Wide	Men's 3,000 m World Record Holder 24 May 1926 – 19 June 1932	Succeeded by Janusz Kusociński
Preceded by Jean Bouin	Men's 10,000 m World Record Holder 22 June 1921 – 25 May 1924	Succeeded by Ville Ritola
Preceded by Ville Ritola	Men's 10,000 m World Record Holder 31 August 1924 – 18 July 1937	Succeeded by Ilmari Salminen
Preceded by John Zander	European Record Holder Men's 1500m 19 June 1924 - 10 September 1926	Succeeded by Otto Peltzer
Sporting positions
Preceded by John Mark London 1948	Final Summer Olympic Torchbearer Paavo Nurmi and Hannes Kolehmainen Helsinki 1952	Succeeded by Ron Clarke and Hans Wikne Melbourne / Stockholm 1956

v • d • e Olympic champions in men's individual cross country 1912: Hannes Kolehmainen • 1920+1924: Paavo Nurmi

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 1500 m 1896: Edwin Flack • 1900: Charles Bennett • 1904: Jim Lightbody • 1906: Jim Lightbody • 1908: Mel Sheppard • 1912: Arnold Jackson • 1920: Albert Hill • 1924: Paavo Nurmi • 1928: Harry Larva • 1932: Luigi Beccali • 1936: Jack Lovelock • 1948: Henry Eriksson • 1952: Josy Barthel • 1956: Ron Delany • 1960: Herb Elliott • 1964: Peter Snell • 1968: Kip Keino • 1972: Pekka Vasala • 1976: John Walker • 1980: Sebastian Coe • 1984: Sebastian Coe • 1988: Peter Rono • 1992: Fermín Cacho • 1996: Noureddine Morceli • 2000: Noah Ngeny • 2004: Hicham El Guerrouj • 2008: Rashid Ramzi

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 5000 m 1912: Hannes Kolehmainen • 1920: Joseph Guillemot • 1924: Paavo Nurmi • 1928: Ville Ritola • 1932: Lauri Lehtinen • 1936: Gunnar Höckert • 1948: Gaston Reiff • 1952: Emil Zátopek • 1956: Vladimir Kuts • 1960: Murray Halberg • 1964: Bob Schul • 1968: Mohammed Gammoudi • 1972: Lasse Virén • 1976: Lasse Virén • 1980: Miruts Yifter • 1984: Saïd Aouita • 1988: John Ngugi • 1992: Dieter Baumann • 1996: Vénuste Niyongabo • 2000: Millon Wolde • 2004: Hicham El Guerrouj • 2008: Kenenisa Bekele

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 5 miles and 10,000 m As five miles 1906: Henry Hawtrey • 1908: Emil Voigt As 10,000 metres 1912: Hannes Kolehmainen • 1920: Paavo Nurmi • 1924: Ville Ritola • 1928: Paavo Nurmi • 1932: Janusz Kusociński • 1936: Ilmari Salminen • 1948:  Emil Zátopek • 1952:  Emil Zátopek • 1956: Vladimir Kuts • 1960: Pyotr Bolotnikov • 1964: Billy Mills • 1968: Naftali Temu • 1972: Lasse Virén • 1976: Lasse Virén  • 1980: Miruts Yifter • 1984: Alberto Cova • 1988: Brahim Boutayeb • 1992: Khalid Skah • 1996: Haile Gebrselassie • 2000: Haile Gebrselassie • 2004: Kenenisa Bekele • 2008: Kenenisa Bekele

Persondata
NAME	Nurmi, Paavo Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Finnish runner
DATE OF BIRTH	June 13, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH	Turku, Finland
DATE OF DEATH	October 2, 1973
PLACE OF DEATH	Helsinki, Finland

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