Paavo Nurmi won 9 Olympic gold medals.
The Finnish distance runner earned those titles across the 1920, 1924, and 1928 Summer Olympics. His first three came at Antwerp 1920: the 10,000 metres, the individual cross-country race, and the cross-country team event. He also won a silver in the 5,000 metres.
Nurmi’s greatest Olympic Games were in Paris in 1924, where he won five golds. He captured both the 1,500 metres and 5,000 metres in the same day, then added victories in the 3,000 metres, 3,000-metre team race, and cross-country team event. At Amsterdam 1928, he won the 10,000 metres and collected two silver medals.
A common mix-up is confusing gold medals with total medals: Nurmi won 12 Olympic medals altogether—9 gold and 3 silver. He did not compete at the 1932 Games after being suspended amid a dispute over his amateur status.