Paavo Nurmi wins the 1500m at the Paris 1924 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
No matter which modern middle-distance master happens to emerge victorious from today’s 30th men’s Olympic 1500m final in Paris, they will be unable to match the golden deeds of the winner of the event in the French capital 100 years ago.
For the first two 500m circuits of the grey ash Stade Colombes track on 10 July 1924, Paavo Nurmi clutched a stopwatch in his right hand. At the bell, he threw it aside before surging to victory in 3:53.6, an Olympic record – 1.4 seconds ahead of his closest pursuer, the Swiss runner Wilhelm Scharer.
Nurmi was a timeless titan of track and field. He proceeded to collect a second, third, fourth and fifth gold medal at those Paris Olympics – still a record athletics haul from a single Games, a century on.
On the day of the 2024 Olympic men’s 1500m final, the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA) will be staging a ‘MOWA Gathering of Champions’ to mark the centenary of “The Phantom Finn’s” Parisian deeds at the exhibition in the French capital where, with MOWA’s support, Nurmi’s five gold medals from 1924 have been on display since 27 March: D’or, d’argent, de bronze - une histoire de la medaille Olympique.
Paavo Nurmi (© Getty Images)
The location of the exhibition is the Monnaie de Paris, the French mint which cast the Olympic medals of 1924 and 2024. A historic coming home for Nurmi’s medals.
Fittingly, Sebastian Coe will be the host of the event. The World Athletics President has a place in history as the only man to have won two Olympic 1500m finals.
The two Olympic golds he won in his distinguished career came four years apart. In Paris in 1924, Nurmi claimed two in just over an hour.
The final of the 5000m started 52 minutes after the conclusion of the 1500m.
Nurmi was unperturbed by the challenge. He ignored the cheers of the crowd, picked up his stopwatch and disappeared into the dressing room, where – it was said – he fell asleep while lying on a mattress getting his legs massaged.
Two months past his 27th birthday, the enigmatic Finn – “the Greta Garbo of the track,” as he was dubbed by the press – had arrived in Paris already firmly established as the world’s leading distance runner.
He had claimed three of his nine Olympic gold medals (from the 10,000m and the individual and team cross country in Antwerp in 1920) and set six of his 22 world records.
Not selected to defend 10,000m title
It had been Nurmi’s intention to go for six golds in Paris in 1924 but when the schedule was published the Finnish authorities chose the US-based Ville Ritola as their main man for the 10,000m and omitted the reigning champion from that event.
Their reasoning was that the programme would be punishing enough for Nurmi, given the 55-minute gap between the finals of the 1500m and 5000m. His response was to tackle both distances within the same time-frame in the Finnish Olympic Trials at the Elaintarha Zoological Sports Ground in Helsinki, a month before the Games, setting world records of 3:52.6 and 14:28.2.
Paavo Nurmi during the Paris 1924 cross country (© Getty Images)
“Mind is everything”
He still had a point to prove when he returned to the Stade Colombes track for the second leg of his one-hour double on 10 July 1924. Alongside him on the start line was Ritola, who had already claimed Nurmi’s 10,000m crown, clocking a world record of 30:23.2, and also taken gold in the 3000m steeplechase.
His arch-rival tried to exploit his tiredness from the 1500m, setting off at world record pace. Nurmi stayed calmly in touch, before taking the lead at halfway and remaining two metres ahead of Ritola all the way to the line, prevailing by 0.2 in 14:31.2, an Olympic record.
Nurmi was a runner ahead of his time, as well as his opposition. He devised his own form of what became interval training. In those days long before wristwatches, he started to run with a stopwatch in hand to maintain an even pace.
He became a vegetarian, abstained from drinking tea and coffee and developed an iron will. “Mind is everything,” he said. “Muscles are pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.”
Nurmi had endured a tough upbringing in south-west Finland. He left school at the age of 12 after the death of his father, working as a delivery boy at Turku railway station, hauling goods up the steep slope to the main entrance.
He raced the city’s trams for training and walked and walked and ran for hours in the surrounding forests.
He was described in The Lonely Breed by Norman Harris and Ron Clarke as “stern and silent, with uncompromising self-discipline and white-hot ambition, bearing the closest possible resemblance in athletics to Napoleon Bonaparte.”
Paris heatwave
Two days after his famous Olympic 1500m-5000m double in Stade Colombes, Nurmi might have met his Waterloo by the banks of the Seine in the brutal 10.7km cross country race.
The 38 starters – Ritola also included – had to contend with temperatures of 45°C, noxious fumes from an industrial chimney and cobbled paths covered in knee-high thistles.
Only 15 men finished and several were taken to hospital. He seemingly untroubled Nurmi emerged victorious, 84 seconds clear of Ritola. He also led the Flying Finns to team gold.
Paavo Nurmi enters the stadium after the cross country at the Paris 1924 Olympics (© Getty Images)
The day after that Nurmi collected gold medal number five, leading Finland to victory in the 3000m team race at Stade Colombes. Ritola was the second man home, eight seconds behind – taking his medal tally in Paris to a record six.
Most Olympic athletics medals ever won
Nurmi won nine Olympic titles in all, having prevailed in the 10,000m and claimed individual and team cross country golds in Antwerp in 1920 and going on to regain the 10,000m crown in Amsterdam in 1928. Along with his three silvers, his twelve Olympic medals are the greatest number ever win by a track and field athlete.
Ritola claimed a record six athletics medals in Paris, four golds and two silvers.
Nurmi destroyed Ritola’s 10,000m world record on home ground in Kuopio a month later, slicing 17 seconds off it with a time of 30:06.2.
Further retribution followed in Amsterdam in 1928. “Peerless Paavo” lived up to his nickname with Olympic gold medal number nine, winning his second 10,000m title, this time from Ritola, who finished 0.6 behind in second place.
Nurmi’s winning time, 30:18.8, broke Ritola’s Olympic record.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage