Editing Paavo Nurmi (section)

==Personal life and public image==
[[File:Paavo Nurmi in a calisthenic pose.jpg|thumb|left|alt=refer to caption|Nurmi in a calisthenic pose]]
Nurmi was married to socialite Sylvi Laaksonen (1907–1968) from 1932 to 1935.<ref name="HS 2006"/> 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, "[H]is concentration on athletics at last forced me to go to the judge for a divorce."<ref>{{cite news | newspaper=[[Calgary Herald|The Calgary Daily Herald]] | title=Athlete should never marry, says Mrs. Paavo Nurmi | date=20 October 1933 | page=8 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VBtkAAAAIBAJ&pg=3127,5166934&dq=nurmi&hl=en | access-date=27 August 2012}}</ref> Matti Nurmi did become a middle-distance runner, and later a "self-made" businessman.<ref name="Doug Gillon"/> Nurmi's relationship with his son was termed "uneasy".<ref name="Doug Gillon"/> Matti admired his father more as a businessman than as an athlete, and the two never discussed his running career.<ref name="Doug Gillon"/> As a runner, Matti was at his best in the 3000 m, where he equalled his father's time.<ref name="Doug Gillon"/> In the famous race on 11 July 1957 when the "three Olavis" ([[Olavi Salsola|Salsola]], [[Olavi Salonen|Salonen]] and [[Olavi Vuorisalo|Vuorisalo]]) broke the world record for the 1500 m, Matti Nurmi finished a distant ninth with his personal best, 2.2 seconds slower than his father's world record from 1924.<ref name="Doug Gillon"/> Hollywood actress [[Maila Nurmi]], best known as the horror icon "[[The Vampira Show|Vampira]]", was often referred to as Paavo Nurmi's niece.<ref name="Maila Nurmi">{{cite web | url=http://muistot.hs.fi/muistokirjoitus/2243/maila-nurmi | title=Maila Nurmi | access-date=10 September 2012 | last=Kaseva | first=Tuomas | work=[[Helsingin Sanomat]] | language=fi | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113035441/http://muistot.hs.fi/muistokirjoitus/2243/maila-nurmi | archive-date=13 January 2013}}</ref> However, the kinship is not supported by official documents.<ref name="Maila Nurmi"/>

Nurmi enjoyed the Finnish sports massage and sauna-bathing traditions, crediting the [[Finnish sauna]] for his performances during the Paris heat wave in 1924.<ref name="Nurmi 1932">{{cite news | first=Paavo | last=Nurmi | newspaper=[[Helsingin Sanomat]] | url=http://files.snstatic.fi/HS/2012/10/hs19320707004.pdf | title=Kunnossaolosalaisuuteni. Sauna ja hieronta ihmelääkkeet. | trans-title=Kunnossaolo-secret. Sauna and massage are the cure for all ills | page=4 | access-date=12 October 2012 | date=7 July 1932 | language=fi | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221230307/http://files.snstatic.fi/HS/2012/10/hs19320707004.pdf | archive-date=21 February 2014 | url-status=dead}}</ref> He had a versatile diet, although he had practiced vegetarianism between the ages of 15 and 21.<ref name="Nurmi 1932"/> Nurmi, who identified as [[Neurasthenia|neurasthenic]], was known to be "taciturn", "stony-faced" and "stubborn".<ref name="Finnish Literature Society"/> He was not believed to have had any close friends, but he had occasionally socialized and showed his "sarcastic sense of humour" among the small circles he knew.<ref name="Finnish Literature Society"/> Acclaimed the biggest sporting figure in the world at his peak,<ref>{{cite journal | first=Enrique Hank | last=Lopez | journal=[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]] | title=The Shoeless Mexicans Vs. The Flying Finn | date=April 1974 | volume=25 | issue=3 |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/shoeless-mexicans-vs-flying-finn | access-date=30 August 2012}}</ref> Nurmi was averse to publicity and the media,<ref name="Finnish Literature Society"/> stating later on his 75th birthday, "[W]orldly fame and reputation are worth less than a rotten lingonberry."<ref name="Doug Gillon"/> French journalist [[Gabriel Hanot]] questioned Nurmi's intensive approach to sports and wrote in 1924 that Nurmi "is ever more serious, reserved, concentrated, pessimistic, fanatic. There is such coldness in him and his self-control is so great that never for a moment does he show his feelings."<ref name="Nurmi as seen by others">{{Cite web | work=The Sports Museum of Finland | title=Nurmi as seen by others | url=https://www.urheilumuseo.fi/portals/47/PaavoNurmi2010/seenby.htm | access-date=25 November 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305120439/http://www.urheilumuseo.fi/portals/47/PaavoNurmi2010/seenby.htm | archive-date=5 March 2016 | url-status=dead }}</ref> Some contemporary Finns nicknamed him ''Suuri vaikenija'' (The Great Silent One),{{sfn|Raevuori|1997|p=372}} and [[Ron Clarke]] noted that Nurmi's persona remained a mystery even to Finnish runners and journalists: "Even to them, he was never quite real. He was enigmatic, sphinx-like, a god in a cloud. It was as if he was all the time playing a role in a drama."<ref name="Nurmi as seen by others"/>

Nurmi was more responsive to his fellow athletes than to the media. He exchanged ideas with sprinter [[Charley Paddock]] and even trained with his rival [[Otto Peltzer]].<ref name="The Guardian 2008">{{cite news | first=Time | last=Pears | newspaper=[[The Guardian]] | title=Otto the strange: The champion who defied the Nazis | date=29 June 2008 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2008/jun/29/olympicgames | access-date=30 August 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | year=1984 | title=Olympic Review, Issues 195–206 | publisher=[[International Olympic Committee]] | page=171}}</ref> Nurmi told Peltzer to forget his opponents: "Conquering yourself is the greatest challenge of an athlete."<ref name="The Guardian 2008"/> Nurmi was known to emphasize the importance of psychological strength: "Mind is everything; muscle, pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind."<ref>{{cite book | first1=Pete | last1=Pfitzinger | first2=Scott | last2=Douglas | year=2008 | title=Advanced Marathoning | publisher=Human Kinetics | page=11 | isbn=978-0736074605}}</ref> Regarding Nurmi's conduct on track, Peltzer found that "in his impenetrability he was a Buddha gliding on the track. Stopwatch in hand, lap after lap, he ran towards the tape, subject only to the laws of a mathematical table."<ref name="The time machine">{{cite web | first=Tim | last=Pears | title=The time machine | work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2007/jul/29/athletics.features | date=29 July 2007 | access-date=17 August 2012}}</ref> 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&nbsp;— he was so excited. I couldn't believe it!"<ref>{{cite book | first1=Frederick | last1=Lewis | first2=Dick | last2=Johnson | year=2005 | title=Young at Heart: The Story of Johnny Kelley, Boston's Marathon Man | publisher=[[Rounder Records]] | page=49 | isbn=978-1579401139}}</ref>

Nurmi's speed and elusive personality led to nicknames such as the "Phantom Finn", the "King of Runners" and "Peerless Paavo",<ref name="Urheilumuseo"/><ref>{{cite news | first=Paul | last=Sjoblom | newspaper=[[The Leader-Post]] | title=Nurmi To Coach Athletes | date=5 June 1941 | page=17 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=j7tTAAAAIBAJ&pg=1655,3884499&dq=paavo-nurmi&hl=en | access-date=10 September 2012}}</ref><ref name="Scandinavian Review">{{cite web | first=Richard J. | last=Litell | work=Scandinavian Review | title=Peerless Paavo | date=1 October 2008 |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1P3-1601026691 }}{{dead link|date=July 2021}}</ref> while his mathematical prowess and use of a stopwatch led the press to characterize him as a running machine.<ref>{{cite book | first=John | last=Bale | year=2003 | title=Running Cultures: Racing in Time and Space | publisher=[[Routledge]] | pages=88–89 | isbn=978-0714684246}}</ref> One newspaperman dubbed Nurmi "a mechanical Frankenstein created to annihilate time."<ref name="The Olympic Odyssey">{{cite book | first=Phil | last=Cousineau | author-link=Phil Cousineau | year=2003 | title=The Olympic Odyssey: Rekindling the True Spirit of the Great Games | publisher=[[Quest Books]] | page=[https://archive.org/details/olympicodysseyre0000cous/page/130 130] | isbn=978-0835608336 | url=https://archive.org/details/olympicodysseyre0000cous/page/130 }}</ref> [[Phil Cousineau]] noted that "his own innovation—the tactic of pacing himself with a stopwatch—both inspired and troubled people in an era when the robot was becoming symbolic of the modern soulless human being."<ref name="The Olympic Odyssey"/> Among the popular newspaper rumours about Nurmi was that he had a "freakish heart" with a very low pulse rate.<ref>{{cite news | first=H. G. | last=Salsinger | author-link=H. G. Salsinger | newspaper=[[The Dearborn Independent]] | title=Courage and Endurance&nbsp;— Matters of Stomach, Not of Heart | date=5 March 1927 | page=12}}</ref> During the debate over his amateur status, Nurmi was joked to have "the lowest heartbeat and the highest asking price of any athlete in the world."<ref name="Scandinavian Review"/>