Paavo Nurmi

Paavo Nurmi, the "Flying Finn," won 9 Olympic gold medals and 12 total across the 1920, 1924, and 1928 Olympics, a medal count that surpasses #8 Nadia Comaneci by 7 golds. At the 1924 Paris Games, he won 5 golds in 8 days—including the 1500m and 5000m within 90 minutes—a feat never repeated, running with a stopwatch to pace himself with exact precision. He set 22 official world records between 1920 and 1931, averaging 2.2 records per year, faster than the typical rival of his era.