All too often in sporting circles the word “Great” gets thrown around with very little merit to such claims. Very few sports people down the years have actually warranted such a word to be used when describing their achievements. Here is the tale of one of those “Great” people, Paavo Nurmi.
Beginnings of Paavo Nurmi
Born on 13th July 1897, in the Finnish town of Turku, Nurmi’s life changed forever fifteen years after this day. At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Nurmi witnessed Finnish compatriot, Hannes Kolehmainen win three gold medals in long distance running events. It was at this moment when Nurmi realised what he wanted to do, he obtained his first pair of running shoes and began training. He took training very seriously and often put himself through a rigorous regime in order to truly reach his potential as a runner.
Paavo Nurmi’s Olympic Career
Nurmi’s first Olympic games were in 1920 in Antwerp, however his first race was the 5,000 metres and sadly for him he only managed to come second. Despite this setback Nurmi would leave Antwerp a Finnish hero as he came back a few days later and bested his rivals in the 10,000 metres and 8,000 metres cross country, as well as helping the Finnish team to gold in the 8,000 metres cross country team event
While the 1920 Olympics saw Nurmi announce his name on the world stage, the 1924 Olympics in Paris would go onto bolster the legacy he would leave behind. In just six days Nurmi captured an astounding five gold medals, three of which came in individual events and two in team events. Nevertheless, his most amazing feat came when he won the 1,500 metres and 5,000 metres on the same day with a mere two hours between the races.
By the time the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam come around, Nurmi was now 31 years old and had little interest in competing at the Olympics, this was however until he realised he could further his market value in America by competing. At these games he won his ninth Olympic gold medal in the 10,000 metres, only he, Larissa Latynina, Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis have managed to win nine gold medals. Nurmi also came second in two more events, the 5,000 metres and 3,000 metres steeplechase, thus making him the person with the most Olympic medals in history with twelve (both of these records are accurate at the time of this article being published, but could be beaten at the 2008 Olympics).
Paavo Nurmi: A “Professional”?
Despite achieving so much in his career, one accolade still eluded Nurmi. He had always wanted to win the Olympic marathon, just like his hero Kolehmainen had back in 1920. Sadly, Nurmi would never get the chance to fulfil his dream as it was deemed that he had been paid a substantial amount for travel expenses to a meet, thus making him a professional, therefore he couldn’t compete at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Paavo Nurmi is widely considered as the greatest track and field athlete of all time. It is little wonder why people would hold this opinion; he won plenty of Olympic medals and broke countless records. One incredible achievement being that in 1923 he held the world records for three prestigious track events: the mile, 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres. To this day he is the only person to hold all three at the same time.
It is clear why Paavo Nurmi was simply referred to as “The King of Runners”.
