It is a enormous story in your editor. One of the crucial treasured keepsakes I’ve, now in my son’s possession, is a postcard from my Grandfather, Earl Robertson, who died in 1988. A colourful character, if there ever was one, Grandpa and I had a tumultuous relationship. Close to the top of his life, we discovered a compromise. He wrote me a postcard about Paavo Nurmi, who had seen race as a child (he was born in 1911). It was in a word to me about my son Adams’ start.
I’m so wanting ahead to seeing these medals. Paavo Nurmi raced 64-plus occasions within the US in 1925. Generations of People have heard the tales, era after era, of seeing the Flying Finn.
Congrats to my good friend Chris Turner at WA Heritage for staging this coup. I consider I met Chris in 1995 at Goteborg. The man is aware of monitor like nobody else. His household was within the newspaper enterprise, and he has a beautiful obsession with Finnish athletics, therefore his Twitter deal with, @nurmi1924.
And because of Mike Rowbottom for his fantastic story.
Nurmi’s 5 gold medals from the Paris 2024 Olympics to be on present throughout this summer season’s Video games within the French capital
The 5 gold medals received by Finland’s Paavo Nurmi on the 1924 Paris Olympics – probably the most gained at a single Video games by any monitor and area athlete – will return to the French capital a century later as half of a bigger exhibition.
The primary victory for the then 27-year-old “Flying Finn” got here within the 1500m on July 10. Lower than an hour later, he had one other Olympic gold so as to add to his assortment after profitable the 5,000m.
Two days later, Nurmi received the person cross nation title in a race run in 45C warmth. A complete of 38 runners from 10 nations began; solely 15 completed. Nurmi additionally picked up a workforce gold with silver medallists Ville Ritola and Heikki Liimateinen.
The following day, Nurmi, Ritola, and Sameli Tala received gold within the 3,000-meter workforce race.
Due to the Nurmi household’s variety generosity, at Chris Turner’s suggestion on the Museum Of World Athletics (MOWA), Nurmi’s set of 5 1924 gold medals will go on show within the prestigious Museum of the Monnaie de Paris, on the left financial institution of the Seine within the coronary heart of the French capital.
Nurmi’s Paris golds kind half of a bigger exhibition of Olympic medals entitled D’or, d’argent, de bronze. Une histoire de la médaille Olympique, organised by the museum of the French mint to mark the Paris 2024 Video games.
The exhibition opens for a media preview on March 26 and might be open to the general public from March 27 to September 22.
Mika Nurmi, Paavo’s grandson, and Finland’s four-time Olympic champion Lasse Viren might be honored visitors on the press preview and public opening ceremony.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe mentioned: “World Athletics is delighted that the household of Paavo Nurmi, the Paavo Nurmi Video games, the Metropolis of Turku, and the museum of the Monnaie de Paris have partnered with our personal Museum of World Athletics to return one of the crucial well-known units of Olympic medals to the French capital for the primary time since they had been received there a century in the past.
“Through the yr of the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games, we’re celebrating the excellent achievements of The Flying Finn Paavo Nurmi, who in 1924 received a nonetheless unsurpassed haul of 5 Olympic athletics gold medals in a single version of the Video games.
“As well-known because the Hollywood stars of his day and lauded by US presidents, Nurmi was the primary really world sports activities star. Nurmi ended his profession with 9 golds, three Olympic silver medals, and 22 ratified world information, however his achievements in Paris 1924, together with an outrageous 1500m and 5000m double received with solely an hour relaxation between the 2 finals, marked the zenith of his profession.
“When visiting Paris for this summer season’s Olympic Video games, I sit up for viewing this historic show of Nurmi’s golds.
“These 5 medals are the athletics centerpiece of a powerful six-month exhibition of Olympic medals and cash staged within the neoclassical museum of the Monnaie de Paris, the world’s oldest repeatedly working mint.”
Chairman and CEO of Monnaie de Paris Marc Schwartz commented: “Presenting a unprecedented set of Olympic gold medals on the Monnaie de Paris Museum is really an honor.
“Even years later, Paavo Nurmi stands out as one of the crucial famend athletes of all time.
“The celebration of his accomplishments undoubtedly positions this assortment as a spotlight of our exhibition: ‘Gold, Silver, Bronze. A historical past of the Olympic Medal’. Come to see it in Paris!”
