Roger Bannister died March 3, 2018, at the age of 88. For those of you too young to remember, or even too young to remember your older siblings or parents talking about him, Bannister was the first human to run a measured mile in less than four minutes. He broke the four-minute barrier on May 6, 1954, with the then-fastest time in history of 3:59.4.
The four-minute mile had previously seemed to be an impenetrable threshold in the popular imagination, and Bannister's shattering of the record was cause for celebration throughout the sporting world, a world still living in the shadow of the Second World War. Bannister's record-breaking run was also celebrated at home in Britain as a moment of national pride, accomplishment and optimism in a country that was still beset by post-war rationing and economic stagnation. In the United States, Bannister was named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated magazine, a rare honor for a non-American.
Bannister broke the four-minute mile more than a decade before I was born, but he was a part of the cultural and sports background of my early life and I regarded him as one of my boyhood heroes. Later when I ran middle-distance track events in high school in the 1980s, I learned just how difficult it is to run a 4-minute mile for us average mortals. My best mile time after four years of intense training (far more training, in fact, than Bannister had) was a mere 4:23. One of my older brothers gave me his matted and framed copy of the January 1955 issue of Sports Illustrated, with Bannister as 1954's Sportsman of the Year, for my 17th birthday. It still hangs in my office at work, as a reminder of what a man can do.
After winning the gold medal in the mile run at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and setting another new world record in the process, Bannister retired from competitive athletics at the age of 25 to focus on finishing his medical education. He went on to complete his post-graduate studies and residency, and became a neurologist noted for his research regarding the brain's autonomic functions.
Bannister represented the ideal of amateur athletics: a man who could be an outstanding athlete and still have a second, far more important act in his life. And he was a hero to millions around the world. Godspeed, Roger.
deadspin.com/the-first-four-mi…-wracked-photo-1823544220
The four-minute mile had previously seemed to be an impenetrable threshold in the popular imagination, and Bannister's shattering of the record was cause for celebration throughout the sporting world, a world still living in the shadow of the Second World War. Bannister's record-breaking run was also celebrated at home in Britain as a moment of national pride, accomplishment and optimism in a country that was still beset by post-war rationing and economic stagnation. In the United States, Bannister was named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated magazine, a rare honor for a non-American.
Bannister broke the four-minute mile more than a decade before I was born, but he was a part of the cultural and sports background of my early life and I regarded him as one of my boyhood heroes. Later when I ran middle-distance track events in high school in the 1980s, I learned just how difficult it is to run a 4-minute mile for us average mortals. My best mile time after four years of intense training (far more training, in fact, than Bannister had) was a mere 4:23. One of my older brothers gave me his matted and framed copy of the January 1955 issue of Sports Illustrated, with Bannister as 1954's Sportsman of the Year, for my 17th birthday. It still hangs in my office at work, as a reminder of what a man can do.
After winning the gold medal in the mile run at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, and setting another new world record in the process, Bannister retired from competitive athletics at the age of 25 to focus on finishing his medical education. He went on to complete his post-graduate studies and residency, and became a neurologist noted for his research regarding the brain's autonomic functions.
Bannister represented the ideal of amateur athletics: a man who could be an outstanding athlete and still have a second, far more important act in his life. And he was a hero to millions around the world. Godspeed, Roger.
deadspin.com/the-first-four-mi…-wracked-photo-1823544220