10,000 metres, Men1

The greatest distance runner on the world was Finland’s Paavo Nurmi but Finnish officials asked him not to run this race as they felt he was entered in too many events. This left the event open for his teammate Ville Ritola who won in world record time of 30:23.2. The only runner who kept pace with Ritola at all was Sweden’s Edvin Wide but he was dropped at 4K. Wide would finish his Olympic career after 1928 with four bronze medals and one silver. Shortly after the 1924 Olympics, Nurmi showed what he was capable of, running 30:06.2 in Kuopio for a world record that would last 13 years.

One controversy concerning the 1924 10K relates to the number of runners on the race. The 1924 Official Report implies that there were 43 starters, but this number is felt to be wrong. Photographs of the race have been used in attempts to determine the number of runners, which is likely somewhere between 30 and 35. Two runners who may have competed were Eritreans Mareg Mangaschia and Tacle Redda who were entered for Italy. But Italian athletics historians are divided on whether or not they actually competed and the best evidence states that they did not. It is unlikely the exact start list will ever be known with precision.