50 Euros Paavo Nurmi

Paavo Nurmi won nine Olympic gold medals between 1920 and 1928, a record in athletics that stood for decades. The Finns called him the "Flying Finn," though that nickname was also applied to his contemporary Hannes Kolehmainen — a distinction Finnish sports historians still argue over. Nurmi was famously banned from the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics by the IAAF on professionalism charges, a decision widely regarded at the time as politically motivated and bitterly contested in Finland.

The Monnaie de Paris issue enters a well-populated field of Nurmi commemoratives; Finland's own mint has struck his likeness repeatedly since the 1990s.