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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.
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Nurmi and who
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 the age of 15, Nurmi rekindled his interest in athletics after being inspired by the performances of Hannes Kolehmainen, who was said to " have run Finland onto the map of the world " at the 1912 Summer Olympics.
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.
It became a popular tourist attraction, and Emil Zátopek was among those who visited the store trying to meet Nurmi.
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.
" After lighting the flame in the Olympic Cauldron, Nurmi passed the torch to his idol Kolehmainen, who lighted the beacon in the tower.
" At the request of Nurmi, who enjoyed classical music and played the violin, Konsta Jylhä's Vaiennut viulu ( The Silenced Violin ) was played during the ceremony.
Laaksonen, who was not interested in athletics, opposed Nurmi raising their newborn son Matti to be a runner and stated to the Associated Press in 1933 that " his concentration on athletics at last forced me to go to the judge for a divorce.
Nurmi, who identified as neurasthenic, was known to be " taciturn ", " stony-faced " and " stubborn ".
" Marathoner Johnny Kelley, who first met his idol at the 1936 Olympics, said that while Nurmi appeared cold to him at first, the two chatted for quite a while after Nurmi had asked for his name: " He grabbed ahold of me — he was so excited.
Twenty world records have been set at the stadium, including John Landy's records on the 1, 500 m and the mile, Nurmi's record on the 3, 000 m and Zátopek's record on the 10, 000 m. In fiction, Nurmi appears in William Goldman's 1974 novel Marathon Man as the idol of the protagonist, who aims to become a greater runner than Nurmi.
The Paavo Nurmi Marathon is an annual sporting event in Turku, named after the world-famous runner Paavo Nurmi, who was born and raised in the city.
The first well-known athlete to light the cauldron in the stadium was ninefold Olympic Champion Paavo Nurmi, who excited the home crowd in Helsinki in 1952.
Some of the most outstanding athletes from the past include Hannes Kolehmainen ( 1890 – 1966 ), Paavo Nurmi ( 1897 – 1973 ) and Ville Ritola ( 1896 – 1982 ) who won eighteen gold and seven silver Olympic medals in the 1910s and 1920s.
Dedication ceremonies were held on May 2, 1925, and featured a two-mile footrace between Ville Ritola and Paavo Nurmi of Finland, who were two of the greatest runners of their day.
Olympic Athlete Harold Abrahams, who also competed in the 1924 Paris Olympics, and who later wrote and published about the Olympiads of his era, wrote in 1950, “ After Nurmi, I think the outstanding performer was the American, Harold Osborn, who won both the high jump and the decathlon.
In the final the main favourites are the Finns Paavo Nurmi, Ville Ritola and Loukola, their leading steeplechase specialist, who had the best hopes for gold, because the firstnamed were worn by their injuries and the gruelling 5000 m race of the previous day.
* Maila Nurmi ( 1922 – 2008 ), a 1950s TV horror hostess and star of the 1959 film Plan 9 From Outer Space, who performed under the name " Vampira "
Nurmi and ran
By the age of eleven, Nurmi ran the 1, 500 metres in 5: 02.
In the army, Nurmi quickly impressed in the athletic competitions: While others marched, Nurmi ran the whole distances with a rifle on his shoulder and a backpack full of sand.
Nurmi improvised new training methods in the army barracks ; he ran behind trains, holding on to the rear bumper, to stretch his stride, and used heavy iron-clad army boots to strengthen his legs.
In the 1, 500 m final at the Olympics in Paris, Nurmi ran the first 800 m almost three seconds faster.
Nurmi ran for the last time on 18 February 1966 at the Madison Square Garden, invited by the New York Athletic Club.
Beardsley ran his first marathon in 2: 47: 14 at the 1977 Paavo Nurmi Marathon in Hurley, Wisconsin.
Nurmi and without
It was customary of the IAAF to accept the final decision of its national branch, and the Associated Press wrote that " there is little doubt that if the Finnish federation clears Nurmi the international body will accept its decision without question.
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.
Nurmi and stopwatch
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.
Realizing that he was now racing the two men and not the clock, Nurmi tossed his stopwatch onto the grass.
Nurmi checks his stopwatch in 1928
Nurmi introduced the " even pace " strategy to running, pacing himself with a stopwatch and spreading his energy uniformly over the race.
Nurmi and has
Nurmi planned to compete only in the 10, 000 m and the marathon in the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, stating that he " won't enter the 5, 000 meters for Finland has at least three excellent men for that event.
In Finland, another marathon bearing the name has been held in Nurmi's hometown of Turku since 1992, along with the athletics competition Paavo Nurmi Games that was started in 1957.
In the 5000 m final, Nurmi has devised a bold strategy in order to exhaust the dangerous Swedes Eric Backman and Runar Falk in the first part of the course.
On the final curve Guillemot moved to pass Nurmi on the outside and, unaccustomed to final stretch sprinting, Nurmi gives up completely and jogs to the finish line four seconds after the winner has broken the tape.
Nurmi and been
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.
Although he had been diagnosed with a pulled Achilles tendon two weeks earlier, Nurmi stated he would have won the event by five minutes.
" While in San Francisco, Nurmi received news that one of his apprentices, 1936 Olympic champion Gunnar Höckert, had been killed in action.
In the cancelled 1940 Summer Olympics, Nurmi had been planned to lead a group of fifty Finnish gold medal winners.
It was designed for the downtrodden Swedish cross country running teams that had been beaten throughout the 1920s by Paavo Nurmi and the Finns.
Nurmi and credited
" Cordner Nelson, founder of Track & Field News, credited Nurmi for popularizing running as a spectator sport: " His imprint on the track world was greater than any man ’ s before or after.
Nurmi and for
At his peak, Nurmi was undefeated at distances from 800 m upwards for 121 races.
Born into a worker family, Nurmi left school at the age of 12 to provide for his family.
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, a talented student, left school to work as an errand boy for a bakery.
Nurmi soon began setting personal bests and got close for the Olympic selection.
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.
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.
0.353 seconds.