Born into a worker family, Nurmi left school at the age of 12 to provide for his family.

Nurmi had won five gold medals in five events, but he left the Games embittered as the Finnish officials had allocated races between their star runners and prevented him from defending his title in the 10, 000 m, the distance that was dearest to him.

Nurmi left America fearing that he had competed too often and burned himself out.

At the 1928 Olympic trials, Nurmi was left third in the 1, 500 m by eventual gold and bronze medalists Harri Larva and Eino Purje, and he decided to concentrate on the longer distances.

Nurmi left for Finland in late April, and later served in the Continuation War in a delivery company and as a trainer in the military staff.

Nurmi, however, was given a scholarship to study at the Teollisuuskoulu industrial school in Helsinki.

During the Finnish Civil War in 1918, Nurmi remained politically passive and concentrated on his work and his Olympic ambitions.

In 1962, Nurmi predicted that welfare countries would start to struggle in the distance events: " The higher the standard of living in a country, the weaker the results often are in the events which call for work and trouble.

" Nurmi was considered a pioneer also in regards to training ; he developed a systematic all-year-round training program that included both long-distance work and interval running.

Statues of Nurmi were also sculpted by Renée Sintenis in 1926 and by Carl Eldh, whose 1937 work Löpare ( Runners ) depicts a battle between Nurmi and Edvin Wide.

Criswell's undead consort, the sexy Black Ghoul, was written for Maila Nurmi, a. k. a. Vampira, but was instead played by Fawn Silver, who wore a black bouffant wig.

At his peak, Nurmi was undefeated at distances from 800 m upwards for 121 races.

Seemingly untouched by the Paris heat wave, Nurmi won all his races and returned home with five gold medals, but embittered, as Finnish officials had refused to enter him for the 10, 000 m.

Nurmi later coached Finnish runners, raised funds for Finland during the Winter War, and worked as a haberdasher, building contractor and share trader, eventually becoming one of Finland's richest people.

Nurmi, who rarely ran without a stopwatch in his hand, has been credited for introducing the " even pace " strategy and analytic approach to running, and for making running a major international sport.

Nurmi soon began setting personal bests and got close for the Olympic selection.

Previously known for his blistering pace on the first few laps, Nurmi started to carry a stopwatch and spread his efforts more uniformly over the distance.

In 1922, he broke the world records for the 2, 000 m, the 3, 000 m and the 5, 000 m. A year later, Nurmi added the records for the 1, 500 m and the mile.

After excelling in mathematics, Nurmi graduated as an engineer in 1923 and returned home to prepare for the upcoming Olympic Games.

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 3, 000 m team race on the next day, Nurmi and Ritola again finished first and second, and Elias Katz secured the gold medal for the Finnish team by finishing fifth.

After returning to Finland, Nurmi set a 10, 000 m world record that would last for almost 13 years.

Nurmi defeated Joie Ray and Lloyd Hahn to win the mile and Ritola to win the 5, 000 m, again setting new world records for both distances.

Nurmi broke ten more indoor world records in regular events and set several new best times for rarer distances.

Nurmi struggled to maintain motivation for running, heightened by his rheumatism and Achilles tendon problems.

In 1926, Nurmi broke Wide's world record for the 3, 000 m in Berlin and then improved the record in Stockholm, despite Nils Eklöf repeatedly trying to slow his pace down in an effort to aid Wide.

This marked the first time in over five years and 133 races that Nurmi had been defeated at a distance over 1, 000 m. In 1927, Finnish officials barred him from international competition for refusing to run against Eklöf at the Finland-Sweden international, cancelling the Peltzer rematch scheduled for Vienna.

Before the 5, 000 m final, Nurmi injured himself in his qualifying heat for the 3, 000 m steeplechase.

Nurmi was seven seconds slower than in his world record run in 1925, and it was immediately speculated if the mile had become too short a distance for him.

In July 1931, Nurmi showed he still had pace for the shorter distances by beating Lauri Lehtinen, Lauri Virtanen and Volmari Iso-Hollo, and breaking the world record on the now-rare two miles.

* Maila Nurmi, aka 1950s TV horror hostess Vampira and co-star of Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space attended Astoria High School in the late 1930s.

* 1922 – Maila Nurmi, Finnish-American actress ( d. 2008 )

* 1897 – Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner ( d. 1973 )

* 2008 – Maila Nurmi, Finnish-born American actress ( b. 1921 )

Paavo Johannes Nurmi () ( 13 June 1897 – 2 October 1973 ) was a Finnish middle and long distance runner.

Nurmi set 22 official world records at distances between 1, 500 metres and 20 kilometres, and won a total of nine gold and three silver medals in his twelve events in the Olympic Games.

Nurmi started to flourish during his military service, setting national records en route to his international debut at the 1920 Summer Olympics.

In 1923, Nurmi became the first, and so far only, runner to hold the mile, the 5, 000 m and the 10, 000 m world records at the same time.

Struggling with injuries and motivational issues after his exhaustive U. S. tour in 1925, Nurmi found his long-time rivals Ville Ritola and Edvin Wide ever more serious challengers.

At the 1928 Summer Olympics, Nurmi recaptured the 10, 000 m title but was beaten to the gold in the 5, 000 m and the 3, 000 m steeplechase.

Nurmi intended to end his career on a marathon gold medal, as his idol Kolehmainen had done.

In a controversial case that strained Finland – Sweden relations and sparked an inter-IAAF battle, Nurmi was suspended before the 1932 Games by an IAAF council that questioned his amateur status.

Nurmi was born in Turku, Finland, to carpenter Johan Fredrik Nurmi and his wife Matilda Wilhelmiina Laine.