1,500 metres, Men

At the end of 1923, Paavo Nurmi was the current world record holder at both 1,500 metres and the mile. He wanted to double at the Olympics in the 1,500 and 5,000 but the schedule came out with the finals only 55 minutes apart. He still elected to attempt the double. Although he hurt his knee a few weeks before the Olympics, his punishing training program allowed him to recover quickly and three weeks before the Olympics, he broke his 1,500 world record with a time of 3:52.6. At the Olympics, he qualified for the 5,000 final on 8 July, and easily won his 1,500 heat the next day. The two finals were on the evening of 10 July. Nurmi had little opposition in this event, as runners were effectively avoiding him and opting for other distances. In the 1,500 final Nurmi went thru 800 in 1:58.5 and only America’s Ray Watson was still with him. But Watson fell back before the end of the second lap (the track was 500 metres) and Nurmi concentrated then only on conserving energy for the 5K. He won the race with Switzerland’s Willy Schärer second, about 12 metres behind. The bronze medalist, Henry Stallard, sustained a stress fracture in his foot during the heats, but ran the final in pain. Less than 45 minutes later, Nurmi returned to the Colombes Stadium track and won the 5,000 metres.