Paavo Nurmi

Finnish distance runner Paavo Nurmi, known as the "Flying Finn," won 9 Olympic gold medals and 12 medals in total across the 1920, 1924, and 1928 Olympics. At the 1924 Paris Olympics he won 5 gold medals in 8 days — including the 1500m and 5000m within 90 minutes of each other — a feat never repeated before or since. Nurmi set 22 official world records between 1920 and 1931 and famously ran with a stopwatch in his hand to pace himself with exact precision.