Roger Bannister Biography
"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win."
- Roger Bannister
Sir Roger Bannister was born in 1929. He went to study medicine at Oxford University. In 1952, he represented Great Britain in the Olympics in Helsinki however, Sir Roger Bannister could only finish 4th in the 1500 metres. Inspired by the intensive training and 3 gold medals of Emile Zatopek, Bannister decided to make a great effort to beat the magical 4 minute barrier.
For a long time the beautiful symmetry of the four minute mile had fascinated many. Some experts even suggested that such a time was impossible. In 1923, Paavo Nurmi, the Flying Finn, recorded a time of 4.10
Roger Bannister Breaks the Sub 4 minute Mile
In 1953, Roger Bannister saw an opportunity at an athletic meeting between Oxford University and Amateur Athletics Association on 6 May.
The actual day was cold, wet and windy and the record attempt was nearly called off. However, at the last moment, the wind died down and Bannister decided to take his chance. He was led out by 2 pacemakers Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher who led him for the first 3 laps. Then Bannister made his last effort for the line. Clearly on the verge of exhaustion, Bannister almost fainted over the line, before the time keeper read out his time
The seconds were not heard as the 1,100 crowd cheered the historic moment. 6 weeks later in Finland the Australian John Landy became the second person to beat the 4 minute mile setting a new world record of 3 minutes 57 seconds. But, who remembers the second person to run a sub four minute mile?
After breaking the record, Bannister concentrated on his medical career and remained modest about his ground breaking achievement. He said there was an element of luck in being the first person to break the four minute mile. It remains one of the great milestones of athletic history
The current mile record is held by Hicham El Guerrouj's with a time of 3:43.13.