Page "Paavo Nurmi" Paragraph 12

Nurmi's trip to the 1924 Summer Olympics was endangered by a knee injury in the spring of 1924, but he recovered and resumed training twice a day.

On 19 June, Nurmi tried out the 1924 Olympic schedule by running the 1, 500 m and the 5, 000 m inside an hour, setting new world records for both distances.

In the 1, 500 m final at the Olympics in Paris, Nurmi ran the first 800 m almost three seconds faster.

His only challenger, Ray Watson of the United States, gave up before the last lap and Nurmi was able to slow down and coast to victory ahead of Willy Schärer, Henry Stallard and Douglas Lowe, still breaking the Olympic record by three seconds.

The 5, 000 m final started in less than two hours, and Nurmi faced a tough challenge from countryman Ville Ritola, who had already won the 3, 000 m steeplechase and the 10, 000 m. Ritola and Edvin Wide figured that Nurmi must be tired and tried to burn him off by running at world-record pace.

Realizing that he was now racing the two men and not the clock, Nurmi tossed his stopwatch onto the grass.

The Finns later passed the Swede as his pace faded and continued their duel.

On the home straight, Ritola sprinted from the outside but Nurmi increased his pace to keep his rival a metre behind.