Paavo Nurmi is considered by some to be the greatest runner of all time. He was known as "The King of Runners" or the "Flying Finn". Famous all over the world, Nurmi became an unending source of national pride for the newly independent Finland. Paavo Nurmi was driven by love of running. He had a burning will to succeed in life, and racing was his way to gain recognition from his fellow men and to fulfil the high standards he had set for himself. Martti Jukola, a famous Finnish sports journalist, wrote in 1935: "There was something inhumanly stern and cruel about him, but he conquered the world by pure means: with a will that had supernatural power." At three Olympic Games from 1920 to 1928 Nurmi won a total of nine gold and three silver medals.
Paavo Nurmi was born on the 13th of July, 1897, at Turku, a port town on the southwestern coast of Finland. In 1912, at the Olympic Games at Stockholm, Hannes Kolehmainen "ran Finland onto the map of the world", winning three gold medals......
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