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Paavo
Nurmi: The inglorious end
Among
the big names of classical sport that had been registered
to participate in the Los Angeles Olympic Games was the Finn
Paavo Nurmi, the athlete-legend of his time in long-distance
running. Indeed, the impressive performances of Nurmi, the
"ghost-athlete", as his compatriots called him, in the Olympic
Games of Antwerp (1920) and Paris (1924) had ranked him among
the greatest athletic personalities of that time. In the two
previous organizations the Finnish runner had been first Olympic
winner in most long-distance races, achieving extraordinary
performances for those times. As a result, he had played the
leading part in the creation of the tradition of Finnish runners
as regards those particular events. However, the Games of
Los Angeles would not be the ones to crown Nurmi's successful
course in sport. Nurmi wished and intended to conclude his
full of distinctions career in the best possible way during
those Games. Therefore, he entered the marathon, for which
he had been prepared as well as he could during the previous
years. By this participation he aimed at adding one more gold
medal in his collection thus bringing down the curtain as
an Olympic winner in the organization that had made of him
one of the greatest personalities of all times in sport.
Notwithstanding, the things that happened during the Games
belied the expectations of Nurmi and his admirers. Following
an accusation, according to which the Finnish champion had
accepted more money than his expenses justified, in order
to go to Germany and participate in a tournament short before
the Los Angeles Games, the Swedish delegation lodged a complaint
requesting his disqualification. The complaint had been based
on the rationale of non-amateur behaviour by Nurmi, seeing
that he had accepted money in order to take part in the said
tournament. The time of intense competition in sport had come
and the disqualification of an athlete who was a favourite
for a gold Olympic medal would be gladly accepted by his opponents.
Eventually, the organizing committee for the Games judged
that Nurmi had behaved as a professional, and hence it accepted
the complaint lodged by the Swedish and disqualified him for
the Games.
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