Paavo Nurmi biography
Paavo Nurmi, in full Paavo Johannes Nurmi, (born June 13, 1897, Turku, Finland—died October 2, 1973, Helsinki), Finnish observe athlete who dominated long-distance working within the Twenties, capturing 9 gold medals in three Olympic Games (1920, 1924, 1928), in addition to three silvers. For eight years (1923–31) he held the world document for the mile run: 4 min 10.4 sec. During his profession he established 25 world data at numerous distances.
Along with quite a few different Finns who gained Olympic honours from 1920, Nurmi was impressed by his countryman Hannes Kolehmainen, who gained three long-distance races on the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. In coaching and in races, Nurmi carried a stopwatch in order that he might exactly regulate his tempo. At the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, he gained the ten,000-metre run and the ten,000-metre cross-country race; on the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, he took one other gold medal within the 10,000-metre run. Most spectacular have been his feats on the 1924 Games in Paris. In little multiple hour on July 10, a particularly scorching day, he set Olympic data within the 1,500-metre and 5,000-metre runs. Two days later, once more in oppressive warmth, he repeated his 1920 triumph within the 10,000-metre cross-country race (an occasion discontinued after 1924), and the next day he completed first in an unofficial 3,000-metre crew race that was gained by Finland (no medals have been awarded).
On August 23, 1923, in Stockholm, Nurmi consulted his stopwatch as he set his mile document, working every of the primary three quarters (a quarter mile) in precisely 63 seconds after which the ultimate quarter in 61.4 seconds. Despite his success, his methodology of evenly paced quarters was not broadly imitated. In early 1925 he made a profitable tour of the United States, showing in a string of observe meets. In 1928 he set a world document for the one-hour run: 19,210 metres (11 miles 1,648 yards). In 1932, shortly earlier than the Olympic Games, he misplaced his worldwide newbie standing, although he continued to race in Finland till 1934.
Along with Kolehmainen, Nurmi had the honour of lighting the Olympic flame to open the 1952 Games in Helsinki, Finland. Nurmi was depicted in nationwide forex on the ten markkaa banknote from 1986 till 2002, when Finland adopted the euro.