[34], Nurmi struggled to maintain motivation for running, heightened by his rheumatism and Achilles tendon problems. [65] Finns charged that the Swedish officials had used devious tricks in their campaign against Nurmi's amateur status,[66] and ceased all athletic relations with Sweden. Nurmi did go to Los Angeles and kept training at the Olympic Village in spite of the ban and a foot injury. His teammate, Ville Ritola, did almost as well. [25] After having ignored shouts and kept the spectators in suspense for a while, he turned into the right direction, realised his situation and reached the finish in 12th place and secured team gold. The Games of the XVth Olympiad were opened at Helsinki, Finland, on 19 July 1952. [82], In February 1940, during the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, Nurmi returned to the United States with his protégé Taisto Mäki, who had become the first man to run the 10,000 m under 30 minutes, to raise funds and rally support to the Finnish cause. Many of those present burst into tears. How many Olympic medals did Paavo Nurmi win? Paavo Nurmi certainly set a milestone in the history of the Olympic games and sport in general. During that spring Nurmi got more attention in America than any Finn before or after. [8] The congress concluded without Nurmi being declared a professional, but the council's authority to disbar an athlete was upheld on a 13–12 vote. Perhaps this tour tired him because Nurmi lost some of his edge. The Finnish Athletic Federation never accepted Nurmi’s sentence, however, and he continued to race in the home country until 1934, as a “national amateur”. Instead, Nurmi had to settle for gold medals in the 1,500, 5,000 and cross-country races in Paris, as well as the 3,000 and cross-country team events. [37][107] Nurmi told Peltzer to forget his opponents: "Conquering yourself is the greatest challenge of an athlete. [98] He died in 1973 in Helsinki and was given a state funeral. [97] Suffering from health problems, with at least one heart attack, a stroke and failing eyesight, Nurmi at times spoke bitterly about sports, calling it a waste of time compared to science and art. Paavo Nurmi made a considerable fortune, mainly in housing industry. Sweden Denmark Finland a) Sweden b) Denmark c) Finland. Mark Spitz and carl Lewis, equally had won how many Gold Medals? He went on to win gold medals in his other three events: the 10,000 m, sprinting past Guillemot on the final curve and improving his personal best by over a minute, the cross country race, beating Sweden's Eric Backman, and the cross country tea… Great Race. During five months he raced 55 times and gave numerous running exhibitions. The Games of the VIIIth Olympiad in Paris in 1924 were the finest hour of Finnish athletics and Paavo Nurmi in particular. He was nicknamed the “Flying Finn” as he dominated distance running in the early 20th century. Vocabulary Games. [8] Nurmi remained undefeated in the distance throughout his 14-year top-level career. He won 53 of his races, abandoned once and lost only once. "[112], Nurmi broke 22 official world records on distances between 1500 m and 20 km; a record in running. [59] The AP called this "one of the slickest political maneuvers in international athletic history", and wrote that the Games would now be "like Hamlet without the celebrated Dane in the cast. They all won 9 Olympic gold medals : Paavo Nurmi was the first Olympian to win 9 Gold Medals. [9] Nurmi's stubbornness caused him difficulties with his non-commissioned officers, but he was favoured by the superior officers,[9] despite his refusal to take the soldier's oath. Middle-distance runner Paavo Nurmi, the "Flying Finn'' of the 1920s, holds the record for most Olympic track medals and gold medals (12 overall, nine gold). Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi, was an Olympic legend whose dedication to a rigorous training schedule and mastery of pace judgment brought a new dimension to distance running. Carl Lewis, 1984. At the time, he led Armas Toivonen, the eventual Olympic bronze medalist, by six minutes. Furthermore, Spitz set a new world record in each of the seven events – 100-meter freestyle (51.22), 200-meter freestyle (1:52.78), 100-meter butterfly (54.27), 200-meter butterfly (2:00.70), 4×100-meter freestyle relay (3:26.42), 4×200-meter freestyle relay (7:35.78), and 4×100-meter medley relay (3:48.16). [75] After ending his career, Nurmi became a coach for the Finnish Athletics Federation and trained runners for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Despite the decline, Nurmi went to the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. H. Ahlberg & Co workshop in Turku, where he worked until he started his military service at a machine gun company in the Pori Brigade in April 1919. The USATF-sanctioned Marathon begins at 7:30 a.m. on … [133] Finlandia University, an American college with Finnish roots, named their athletic center after Nurmi. [60] The statements were produced by Karl Ritter von Halt, after Edström had sent him increasingly threatening letters warning that if evidence against Nurmi were not provided he would be "unfortunately obliged to take stringent action against the German Athletics Association. Not drinking a drop of liquid, he ran the old-style 'short marathon' of 40.2 km (25 miles) in 2:22:03.8 – on the pace to finish in about 2:29:00,[54] just under Albert Michelsen's marathon world record of 2:29:01.8. [81] Nurmi's relationship with his son was termed "uneasy". "[108] Regarding Nurmi's track antics, Peltzer found that "in his impenetrability he was a Buddha gliding on the track. [5] Although he stopped running actively,[4] he got plenty of exercise pushing heavy carts up the steep slopes in Turku. In the decade after Finland gained independence from Russia, Nurmi's Olympic success between 1920 and 1928 helped put his country on the sporting map. [90] He even returned to the track himself a few times. CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (, *Distances have varied as follows: 2 Miles (1899–1931), 5000 meters (1933–1939), 3 Miles 1932, (1940–1986) and odd numbered years since 2015, and 3000 meters (1987–2014) and even numbered years since 2014, International Amateur Athletics Federation.