At the top of my bucket list, whenever I find a spare second during the Olympics – fingers crossed for that – is a visit to the Museum of the Monnaie de Paris, nestled on the left bank of the river Seine.
Taking pride of place amongst the ‘Or, argent, bronze, une histoire de la médaille Olympique’ exhibition, are the unmatched five gold athletic medals won at a singular Olympic event.
These once belonged to my former track idol, Paavo Nurmi, otherwise known as The Phantom Finn. These medals were returned to Paris, the city where they were won, one hundred years after his striking victory at the 1924 Olympics games.
Renowned as the globe’s best long-distance runners at just 27 years old, Nurmi was at the pinnacle of his performance. He had previously secured three gold medals in Antwerp in 1920. Nurmi dared to set his sights on clinching five more golds in the subsequent games in Paris, including an unheard-of 1,500m-5,000m double on the racetrack.
One of the hurdles he had to overcome was that the finals were slated to commence merely 55 minutes apart. Unfazed, Nurmi notched up his first win in the 1,500m race, breaking the Olympic record by three seconds. He immediately followed this up by capturing another gold in the 5,000m race, defeating his esteemed fellow competitor, Ville Ritola.
Nurmi clinched another three gold medals: in the 3,000m team run and in both the team and individual cross-country races. Despite these events now being obsolete, no other athlete, male or female, has yet managed to match Nurmi’s record of most victories in athletics at a single Olympic game in the century that has elapsed since.
In his book, The Lonely Breed, Ron Clarke of Australia, regarded by many as the best runner never to have earned a gold medal, penned a description of Nurmi as a riddle, cryptic and divine. Clarke depicted Nurmi as a stoic figure with devoted self-discipline and fervent ambition, a character akin to Napoleon Bonaparte in the athletic universe.
Two sporting talents, Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway in the male contests, and Faith Kipyegon of Kenya in the women’s events, will endeavour to mirror a 1,500- 5,000-metre dual victory a hundred years on. However, unlike Nurmi, they are not expected to compete twice within a span of 55 minutes.
No female athlete has ever secured a hat-trick of victories in the same individual athletics category at the Olympics, a feat Kipyegon is also hoping to achieve in Paris in the 1,500-metre race, having already emerged victorious in Rio and Tokyo.
Dutch sprinter Sifan Hassan, renowned for pursuing multiple gold medals, has her sights set on a unique objective. She intends to establish herself as the first female athlete in the Olympics’ history to earn a 5,000m, 10,000m, and marathon triple at the same Games – a triumph previously achieved only by Czech running icon Emil Zatopek, also dubbed as “The Human Locomotive,” in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.
Recalling her performance in 2018, where she raced the 800-metre event in 1:56 and clocked 65:00 in the half marathon, Hassan was told she was headed on the same path as Zatopek. Initially unfamiliar with the legendary athlete, Hassan immersed herself in researching about him, becoming a fan, drawn by his inspiring and astonishing journey.
During the Tokyo competitions three years prior, Hassan had made an audacious attempt to secure gold in the 1,500-metre, 5,000-metre, and 10,000-metre categories, only narrowly missing out, settling for a bronze in the 1,500-metre event. She has a tough road ahead in Paris, with the 5,000m finals and heats scheduled first, followed by the 10,000m finals the next Friday, and culminating with the marathon two days later, set as the final athletics event on Sunday morning. If she manages to achieve this feat, she will indeed make the headlines in Paris. But, some may wonder, isn’t it impossible?
In Paris, fellow sportsmen have already accomplished feats viewed by many as unattainable, and none are more noteworthy than those of French swimmer, Leon Marchand. He received two individual gold medals on Wednesday evening, within a span of less than two hours, all in the same segment. This is a feat that no other swimmer has pulled off since 1976.
Marchand stirred a frenzy in Paris La Défense Arena by obtaining the 200m butterfly gold medal, chasing after and surpassing the world record holder and current winner, Kristof Milak from Hungary. He then moved on to achieve the 200m breaststroke gold medal. Such an achievement proved too elusive even for Michael Phelps, who never managed to nab two individual gold medals in one segment.
In a memorable interview with Paul O’Donovan in Cork the previous November, he was oblivious of the fact that he stood a chance of becoming the initial Irish athlete to secure a medal in three separate Olympics. His collaborative victory with Fintan McCarthy in the lightweight doubles rowing event on Friday added to their gold success in Tokyo, and when combined with the silver Paul clinched with his sibling Gary in Rio, sets him apart in Irish sports history. Each of these medals has a distinctive value.
Exactly a hundred years after our maiden involvement as an independent country in the 1924 Paris Olympics, a mere six Irish athletes clinched medals in athletics, shared amongst seven of them. Dr Pat O’Callaghan with two golds in the hammer throw (1928 and 1932), a gold each for Bob Tisdall in the 400m hurdles (1932) and Ronnie Delany in the 1500m (1956), silver for John Treacy in the marathon (1984), and for Sonia O’Sullivan in the 5000m (2000), and Rob Heffernan’s bronze in the 50km walk (2012) stands testament to the rarity and cherished worth of these medals. During that same period, only thrice were these Irish athletics medals earned on the Olympic track.
Rhasidat Adeleke will aspire to carve out her place in such exalted Irish history next week, as she partakes in the 400m race in Stade de France, wholeheartedly believing that at merely 21, she’s ripe to vie with the world’s best one-lap runners.
Adeleke firmly believed she had the potential to secure a medal in her solo competition; hence, she did not want to initially experiment with the mixed relay. Her rationale was that she placed everything on this challenge, with no room for uncertainty.
While securing a medal at her first Olympics would undoubtedly be a unique and memorable achievement, it’s far from unthinkable. Each Olympic medal holds its own singular value, regardless of the number acquired or the importance assigned to its hue.
Any athlete, irrespective of their future victories, will almost certainly treasure their first medal above all others. This sentiment might only alter when they secure their second or third.