V 10 N. 53 Paavo Nurmi Article from 1930 Guardian Archives

This article first appeared in The Guardian on May 7, 1930 a little over 90 years ago.   The modern Guardian chose to publish it on May 7, 2020.  We thought our readers would be interested to see this and look at the analysis that went into the writing so long ago.  Not something out of a book on training just a daily newspaper.  Like any article, more might well have been written.  More details of Nurmi's life, amateurism battles, his fellow Finns, or other athletes of those days, or his overseas tours. But we still felt this was well worth reading.  HIs career in distance running was indeed pivotal in the sport.
George

Thanks so much for the Blog on Paavo Nurmi.

When I became a runner, Paavo Nurmi was one of the first famous runner

that I read about and came to revere!  John Bork Jr.

Surprised to see an article from 1930 with so much biomechanical analysis. The article seems very technical for the Guardian. I enjoyed it.

Bruce Kritzler

The stride pattern thing left me scratching my head (but then many things do).  For a 4:10 guy who took no breathers, the 2:08.1 middle half mile seems to the contrary.  Roy

I had a similar sense but just wanted to see if you read the article.  You get extra credit.  G. 

Paavo Nurmi and the art of middle-distance running – archive, 1930

by FAM Webster

7 May 1930 The Finnish athlete proved his theory that a mile race should be run all in one piece. There are no “breathers” in Nurmi’s races

Paavo Nurmi in action at the Paris Olympic Games, 1924. Photograph: Gamma-Keystone France/Getty Images

FAM Webster

Published onThu 7 May 2020 

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ictures of Paavo Nurmi, Finland, have been chosen to illustrate the art of middle-distance running not only because he holds the world’s one-mile record of 4min 10 2-5sec, and has held almost every record from 1,500 metres in 3min 52 3-5sec to 15 kilometres in 46min 49½sec, but also because it was he who completely revolutionised the world’s preconceived notions of middle-distance mannerisms, methods, and time schedules.

In the first place Nurmi has never trained with other runners, and behind every big race he has run on the track have been hundreds of unobserved miles reeled off on frozen Finnish roads, with a battered old stopwatch for his sole companion. From the very first Nurmi set out to match his strides against time, and in the process he has evolved those terrible time schedules which have broken the heart of every man who has run against him.

(I) Nurmi beginning the stride (Manchester Guardian, 7 May 1930).

Before Nurmi’s appearance milers had developed the habit of running a fast first quarter-mile, easing off during the middle stages, and finishing with a burst of speed. Nurmi changed all that when he produced and proved his theory that a mile race should be run all in one piece. There are no “breathers” in Nurmi’s races, no chances to store up energy for a final sprint, and since he plots out his race in advance and sticks religiously to his time schedule, it became an axiom, when he was in his prime, that the man who wanted to beat him would need to break the world’s record to accomplish his desire.

(II) Leg drive.

He is an extraordinarily reticent sort of person, but when he does deign to make a remark it is worth listening to. One such pronouncement was, “I win my races in the third quarter-mile.” This might be interpreted to mean that that was where his opponents lost the race, for it is in this stage that most runners are accustomed to ease the pace so that they may recuperate before the final struggle. His consistency is well shown by the actual quarter-mile lap times he returned when he set the mile record at 4min 10 2-5sec. They were:

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1st 440 yards 58 6-10sec
2nd 63 2-10sec
3rd 64 9-10sec
4th 63 7-10sec

(III) Beginning of the bound.

(IV) Rear leg hang.

(V) Completing the stride.

(VI) lower leading leg.

(VII) Letting down the heel.

(VIII) Knee pick up.

Another respect in which Nurmi has altered all theories of middle-distance running is in relation to style. Hitherto men had run distances with a slight forward body lean and a low arm carriage. Nurmi, on the other hand, has standardised a vertical running posture in Finland, and his gospel is rapidly spreading to other countries. As will be seen from the illustrations, his body is carried almost bolt upright above his slender hips; his head is held well up, and his chest thrust out to ensure plenty of air for his abnormally large lungs and peculiarly slow-beating heart.

He never comes up on his toes except at the end of the leg drive which starts a fresh stride forward, as shown in picture 2; and at the end of each stride he sinks right down on to the heel of the grounded foot and lets his knee give a little, as seen in pictures 1 and 7. His feet seem to reach out for the track, and each stride ends with the peculiar forward flick of the foot, shown in pictures 5 and 6, and yet he lands not on the toes but far back on the ball of the foot, before the heel is let down on to the cinders.

He has been called a “tractor type” of runner. There is a good deal in this, for as soon as his foot is down it seems to draw him along before the body swings forward above the grounded foot and the strong leg-drive action, seen in picture 2, is put into force. His stride action is so smooth and frictionless that there is an actual visual impression of graceful motion. As seen in pictures 3 to 6, he uses a long, bounding stride, and the one respect in which he does not contravene accepted principles is that the heel of the rear leg never rises above the level of its own knee, as is proved by pictures 4 and 5.

Owing to a certain fondness for the throwing events as a boy, Paavo Nurmi’s torso is abnormally developed, otherwise he could not possibly employ his own peculiar arm action, which other Finnish runners, such as Larva and Purje, of Olympic fame, have copied with remarkable success. None the less he has nothing in the way of physical equipment which hundreds of English runners do not possess, but he does have an invincible determination to excel as a distance runner, and the willingness to pay the price of building up time schedules.

It has been said already that most runners favour a low arm carriage; Nurmi’s hands never fall below the level of his middle, nor are they ever allowed to pass behind his hips, so that he gets a lot of his leverage from a swinging shoulder twist, as is made plain by the illustrations. He has a very high hand carriage, combined with a twist of the upper arm backwards and a most peculiar trick of bending the hand on the wrist to balance his running action.

Two points to notice especially are that his head is always poised upright above his centre of gravity, and that the leading leg is kept hanging behind or directly under its own knee until the lower leg swings forward and the foot shoots out to take the track. This, combined with the long hang of his rear leg, is a factor which contributes greatly to the amazing length of his stride, which is said to be 8ft 6in, when he is travelling at speed; a very long stretch for a man who stands 5ft 101in and weighs 10½st.

Nurmi has two other peculiarities; one is that he does not in the least mind eating a large apple a few minutes before a big race, and he has been known to trot as much as two miles by way of limbering up for a five-mile race. He started his career as a 10,000-metre runner in 1920, was back to the mile distance in 1924, and is now preparing for a serious attempt to break the world’s Marathon record for 26 miles 385 yards at the Olympic Games at Los Angeles in 1932.

Thanks George,

I remember standing by a statue of him at the start of the Helsinki City Marathon in 1984..  Inspiring.