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Sport - Olympic Games

Flying Finn, the king of runners

Stan Rayan

— File Photo

Paavo Nurmi.

KOCHI: He always ran with a stopwatch in hand. And often, with none to beat him, Paavo Johannes Nurmi’s race was virtually against the clock.

The Finn, the greatest endurance runner of all time, won nine Olympic gold medals, five of them at the 1924 Games alone.

Stunningly, two of these — in the 1500m and 5000m — came within the space of just two hours and with World records. Two days later, he won the 10,000m cross-country, picking up another gold in the team event. His fifth gold came two days after that in the 3000m team event. He would have added one more but Finnish officials did not enter him in the 10,000m despite Nurmi being the defending champion in the event.

When he returned home, an angry Nurmi set a World record in the event which stood for almost 13 years.

No wonder, they call him the ‘Flying Finn’ and the ‘King of runners’.

Nurmi was at his peak in Paris but he also won three golds and a silver in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics and one more gold in Amsterdam in 1928, regaining his 10,000m title. He also won silvers in the 5000m and 3000m steeplechase.

Surprisingly, for a man who did not believe in the saying, ‘records are meant to be broken’, Nurmi shattered 22 World records over a span of 12 years.

With age catching up, Nurmi slowly turned to longer distances with the hope of winning the Olympic marathon in the 1932 Games.

But in the run-up to the Los Angeles Olympics, Nurmi, by then 35, was accused of being a professional athlete and suspended from competition.

Nurmi was an introvert but he made his running do all the talking. With his dedicated and systematic training, he put Finland on the world map.

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