Word: nurmi
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...since Finn Paavo Nurmi's memorable visit nearly a generation ago has a European athlete started for the U.S. with a better build-up than Gunder Hägg. Last summer he broke ten world's records at distances ranging from 1,500 to 5,000 meters (slightly over three miles). From sketchy reports U.S. track fans pieced together an extraordinary figure: a fireman by trade, so thin he looks like an inmate of a Jap prison camp, and yet rugged enough to run a mile in 4:04.6, two miles in 8:47.8, three miles...
Four Minutes Flat. Unlike Nurmi, Hägg has no fancy theories about his speed. A bashful, homespun farmer's son, reared in the wooded hills of northern Sweden, he attributes his flawless style to the springy forest paths, thickly padded with pine needles, where he first learned to run. He believes he is smooth and swift because he enjoys running more than anything else in the world except playing his accordion and doing the hambo, a native Swedish dance...
When a reporter once asked him if he had a slow pulse like Nurmi's (46), Gunder Hägg admitted that he had never bothered to notice (he has since discovered that it is low-48 at rest). He also scoffs at stop watches, diets and training rules. "I run," says he, "the way my muscles and nerves tell me. When I feel the time has come to sprint, I sprint...
...Gregory Rice, a pony-sized runner with a Percheron kick, is the fastest distance racer ever developed in the U.S. Despite a triple hernia that has kept him out of the services, he has won 57 consecutive races (the great Paavo Nurmi won only 50), has whittled down the indoor records for two and three miles to 8:51.1 and 13:45.7 respectively. Last week, in his first race since pulling a tendon in his heel three months ago, Rice beat his nearest rival over two miles by 55 yards. But his time was not unusual...
...Kansan Archie San Romani in 1937; at Malmö, Sweden. It was the fourth time in three weeks that Haegg had set a new world's record. He ran 1,500 meters in 3:45.8, a mile in 4:06.2, two miles in 8:47.8. Hailed as another Nurmi, Haegg has been invited to tour the U.S. next winter...