Paavo Nurmi's Stopwatch

Paavo Nurmi used to control his pace during his races with a stopwatch. At the Paris Olympic Games of 1924 Nurmi won three of his five gold medals by using a watch that he had borrowed from the sports educator Tahko Pihkala. Afterwards Pihkala had the watch engraved: “This watch was held by P. Nurmi when running 1500, 5000 and 3000 m at the Olympic Games 1924”. Pihkala used the watch regularly on his jogging trips. In 1963 he was hit by a car when jogging and taken to a hospital. A little boy found the watch at the scene of the accident and delivered it to Paavo Nurmi. Nurmi had the watch repaired in Switzerland and returned it to Pihkala.