Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister (23 March 1929 – 3 March 2018) was an English
neurologist
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...
and
middle-distance athlete who ran the first sub-
4-minute mile
A four-minute mile is the completion of a mile run (1609 m) in four minutes or less. It was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister, at age 25, in 3:59.4. As of April 2021, the "four-minute barrier" has been broken by 1,663 athletes, and is ...
.
At the
1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister set a British record in the
1500 metres
The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...
and finished in fourth place. This achievement strengthened his resolve to become the first athlete to finish the
mile run
The mile run (1,760 yards or exactly 1,609.344 metres) is a middle-distance foot race.
The history of the mile run event began in England, where it was used as a distance for gambling races. It survived track and field's switch to ...
in under four minutes. He accomplished this feat on 6 May 1954 at
Iffley Road track
The Roger Bannister running track, also known as the Oxford University track, is a 400-metres athletics running track and stadium in Oxford, England. It was where Sir Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile on 6 May 1954, when it was known ...
in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, with
Chris Chataway
Chris Chataway (born ) is an Australian Anglican priest and musician who has served as Dean of Perth since 1 February 2020. He previously served as Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Cath ...
and
Chris Brasher
Christopher William Brasher CBE (21 August 1928 – 28 February 2003) was a British track and field athlete, sports journalist and co-founder of the London Marathon.
Early life and education
Born in Georgetown, British Guiana, Brasher went to ...
providing the pacing. When the announcer,
Norris McWhirter
Norris Dewar McWhirter (12 August 192519 April 2004) was a British writer, political activist, co-founder of The Freedom Association, and a television presenter. He and his twin brother Ross were known internationally for the founding of ''Gui ...
, declared "The time was three...", the cheers of the crowd drowned out Bannister's exact time, which was 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. He had attained this record with minimal training, while practising as a
junior doctor
In the United Kingdom, junior doctors are qualified medical practitioners working whilst engaged in postgraduate training. The period of being a junior doctor starts when they qualify as a medical practitioner following graduation with a Bachelor o ...
. Bannister's record lasted just 46 days.
Bannister went on to become a neurologist and Master of
Pembroke College, Oxford
Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after ...
, before retiring in 1993. As Master of Pembroke, he was on the governing body of
Abingdon School
Abingdon School is a day and boarding independent school for boys in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England. The twentieth oldest independent British school, it celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2006. The school was described as "highly ...
from 1986 to 1993. When asked whether the 4-minute mile was his proudest achievement, he said he felt prouder of his contribution to academic medicine through research into the responses of the nervous system. Bannister was patron of the
MSA Trust. He was diagnosed with
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
in 2011.
Early life and education
Bannister was born on 23 March 1929 in
Harrow, London. His parents Ralph and Alice were both from working class families in
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
. Ralph had moved to London at the age of 15 to work in the
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
, and met Alice on a trip home.
They married in 1925, and had a daughter, Joyce, before Roger was born.
The family moved to
Bath shortly after the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
when Ralph was relocated there, and Roger continued his education at
City of Bath Boys' School
Beechen Cliff School is a boys' secondary school in Bath, Somerset, England, with about 1,150 pupils. Its earliest predecessor school was founded in 1896.
There are around 930 boys in years 7 to 11 and a co-educational sixth form of 402 pupils ...
.
Here he discovered a talent for
cross country running
Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...
, winning the junior cross-country cup three consecutive times, which led to him being presented with a miniature replica trophy.
During a
bombing raid on Bath, the family house was severely damaged as the Bannisters sheltered in the basement.
In 1944, the family returned to London and Roger went to
University College School
("Slowly but surely")
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent day school
, religion =
, president =
, head_label = Headmaster
, head = Mark Beard
, r_head_label =
, r_hea ...
.
Bannister was accepted into
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
but the Senior Tutor
Robert Howland, a former Olympic
shot put
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...
ter, suggested that Bannister wait a year. After the year he proceeded to apply to
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth-oldest college of the un ...
and was accepted for a three-year degree in Medicine.
Athletics career
Early running career
Bannister was inspired by miler
Sydney Wooderson
Sydney Charles Wooderson MBE (30 August 1914 – 21 December 2006), dubbed "The Mighty Atom", was an English athlete whose peak career was in the 1930s and 1940s.
He set the world mile record of 4:06.4 at London’s Motspur Park on 28 August 19 ...
's comeback in 1945. Eight years after setting the mile record and seeing it surpassed during the war years by the Swedish runners
Arne Andersson
Arne Andersson (27 October 1917 – 1 April 2009) was a Swedish middle distance runner who became famous for his rivalry with his compatriot Gunder Hägg in the 1940s. Anderson set a 1500 metres world record in Gothenburg in August 1943 with a ...
and
, Wooderson regained his old form and challenged Andersson over the distance in several races.
Wooderson lost to Andersson but set a British record of 4:04.2 in
Gothenburg
Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...
on 9 September.
Like Wooderson, Bannister would ultimately set a mile record, see it broken, and then set a new personal best slower than the new record.
Bannister started his running career at
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
in the autumn of 1946 at the age of 17. He had never worn running spikes previously or run on a track.
His training was light, even compared to the standards of the day, but he showed promise in running a mile in 1947 in 4:24.6 on only three weekly half-hour training sessions.
He was selected as an Olympic "possible" in 1948 but declined as he felt he was not ready to compete at that level.
However, he was further inspired to become a great miler by watching the
1948 Olympics. He set his training goals on the
1952 Olympics in Helsinki.
In 1949, he improved in the run to 1:52.7 and won several mile races in 4:11.
Then, after a period of six weeks with no training, he came in third at
White City White City may refer to:
Places Australia
* White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore
* White City railway station, a former railway station
* White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney
* White City FC, a football clu ...
in 4:14.2.
The year 1950 saw more improvements as he finished a relatively slow 4:13-mile on 1 July with an impressive 57.5 last quarter. Then, he ran the
AAA
AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to:
Airports
* Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA)
* Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA)
Arts, entertainment, and me ...
880 in 1:52.1, losing to
Arthur Wint
Arthur Stanley Wint OD MBE (25 May 1920 – 19 October 1992) was a Jamaican Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot during the Second World War, sprinter, physician, and later High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. Competing at the 1948 and 1952 Olympi ...
, and then ran 1:50.7 for the 800 m at the European Championships on 26 August,
placing third.
Chastened by this lack of success, Bannister started to train harder and more seriously.
His increased attention to training paid quick dividends, as he won a mile race in 4:09.9 on 30 December. Then in 1951 at the
Penn Relays
The Penn Relays (also Penn Relays Carnival) is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States, hosted annually since April 21, 1895 by the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. In 2012, there were ...
, Bannister broke away from the pack with a 56.7 final lap, finishing in 4:08.3. Then, in his biggest test to date, he won a mile race on 14 July in 4:07.8 at the
AAA
AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to:
Airports
* Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA)
* Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA)
Arts, entertainment, and me ...
Championships at White City before 47,000 people. The time set a meet record and he defeated defending champion
Bill Nankeville
George William Nankeville (24 March 1925 – 8 January 2021) was a British middle distance athlete who won the AAA mile title four times in five years between 1948 and 1952 and ran a best recorded time of 4:08.8 in 1949. He was born in Guil ...
in the process.
Bannister suffered defeat, however, when
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
's Andrija Otenhajmer, aware of Bannister's final-lap kick, took a 1500 m race in
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
25 August out at near-record pace, forcing Bannister to close the gap by the bell lap. Otenhajmer won in 3:47.0, though Bannister set a personal best finishing second in 3:48.4. Bannister was no longer seen as invincible.
His training was a very modern individualised mixture of
interval training
Interval training is a type of training exercise that involves a series of high-intensity workouts interspersed with rest or relief periods. The high-intensity periods are typically at or close to anaerobic exercise, while the recovery periods inv ...
influenced by coach
Franz Stampfl
Franz Ferdinand Leopold Stampfl MBE (born Vienna 18 November 1913 – died 19 March 1995 Melbourne) was one of the world's leading athletics coaches in the twentieth century. He pioneered a scientific system of Interval Training which became ver ...
with elements of block
periodisation
In historiography, periodization is the process or study of categorizing the past into discrete, quantified, and named blocks of time for the purpose of study or analysis.Adam Rabinowitz. It's about time: historical periodization and Linked Ancie ...
,
fell running and anaerobic elements of training which were later perfected by
Arthur Lydiard
Arthur Leslie Lydiard (6 July 1917 – 11 December 2004) was a New Zealand running, runner and athletics (sport), athletics coach. He has been lauded as one of the outstanding athletics coaches of all time and is credited with popularising the ...
.
![Sir Roger Bannister plaque in Paddington Recreation Ground](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Sir_Roger_Bannister_plaque_in_Paddington_Recreation_Ground.jpg)
From 1951 to 1954, Bannister trained at the track at
Paddington Recreation Ground
Paddington Recreation Ground is a park in Maida Vale, City of Westminster, just north of Paddington. Its 27-acre site is the largest area of parkland located entirely within the City of Westminster. It was the first park of its kind in London, ...
in
Maida Vale
Maida Vale ( ) is an affluent residential district consisting of the northern part of Paddington in West London, west of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn. It is also the name of its main road, on the continuous Edgware Road. Maida Vale is ...
while he was a medical student at the nearby
St Mary's Hospital. There are two Bannister plaques at the pavilion, both unveiled by him on 10 September 2000; a circular
blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...
and a rectangular
historic plaque
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
containing additional information. According to the latter, Bannister was able to train for just an hour each day due to his medical studies.
1952 Olympics
Bannister avoided racing after the 1951 season until late in the spring of 1952, saving his energy for Helsinki and the Olympics. He ran an run on 28 May 1952 in 1:53.00, followed by a 4:10.6-mile time-trial on 7 June, proclaiming himself satisfied with the results. At the
AAA
AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to:
Airports
* Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA)
* Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA)
Arts, entertainment, and me ...
championships, he skipped the mile and won the 880 in 1:51.5.
Then, 10 days before the Olympic final, he ran a mile time trial in 2:52.9,
which gave him confidence that he was ready for the Olympics as he considered the time to be the equivalent of a four-minute mile.
His confidence soon dissipated, however, as it was announced there would be semi-finals for the 1500 m (equal to 0.932 miles) at the Olympics,
which he felt favoured runners who had much deeper training regimens than he did. When he ran his semi-final, Bannister finished fifth and thereby qualified for the final, but he felt "blown and unhappy".
The
1500 m final on 26 July 1952 would prove to be one of the more dramatic in Olympic history.
The race was not decided until the final metres,
Josy Barthel
Joseph ("Josy") Barthel (24 April 1927 – 7 July 1992) was a Luxembourgish athlete. He was the surprise winner of the Men's 1500 metres at the 1952 Summer Olympics, and the only athlete representing Luxembourg to have won a gold medal at t ...
of
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
prevailing in an Olympic-record 3:45.28 (3:45.1 by official hand-timing) with the next seven runners all under the old record.
Bannister finished fourth,
out of the medals, but set a British record of 3:46.30 (3:46.0) in the process.
New goal
![Roger Bannister and John Landy at Iffley Road on the 50th anniversary of the four minute mile 6 May 2004](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Roger_Bannister_and_John_Landy_at_Iffley_Road_on_the_50th_anniversary_of_the_four_minute_mile_6_May_2004.jpg)
After his relative failure at the 1952 Olympics, Bannister spent two months deciding whether to give up running. He set himself on a new goal: to be the first man to run a mile in under four minutes.
Accordingly, he intensified his training and did hard
intervals
Interval may refer to:
Mathematics and physics
* Interval (mathematics), a range of numbers
** Partially ordered set#Intervals, its generalization from numbers to arbitrary partially ordered sets
* A statistical level of measurement
* Interval e ...
.
On 2 May 1953, he made an attempt on the British record at
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
. Paced by
Chris Chataway
Chris Chataway (born ) is an Australian Anglican priest and musician who has served as Dean of Perth since 1 February 2020. He previously served as Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Cath ...
, Bannister ran 4:03.6, shattering Wooderson's 1945 standard.
"This race made me realise that the four-minute mile was not out of reach," said Bannister.
On 27 June 1953, a mile race was inserted into the programme of the
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
schools athletic meeting. Australian runner Don Macmillan, ninth in the 1500 m at the 1952 Olympics, set a strong pace with 59.6 for one lap and 1:59.7 for two. He gave up after two and a half laps, but
Chris Brasher
Christopher William Brasher CBE (21 August 1928 – 28 February 2003) was a British track and field athlete, sports journalist and co-founder of the London Marathon.
Early life and education
Born in Georgetown, British Guiana, Brasher went to ...
took up the pace. Brasher had jogged the race, allowing Bannister to lap him so he could be a fresh pace-setter. At mile, Bannister was at 3:01.8, the record—and first sub-four-minute mile—in reach. But the effort fell short with a finish in 4:02.0, a time bettered by only Andersson and Hägg.
British officials would not allow this performance to stand as a British record, which, Bannister felt in retrospect, was a good decision. "My feeling as I look back is one of great relief that I did not run a four-minute mile under such artificial circumstances," he said.
But other runners were making attempts at the four-minute barrier and coming close as well. American
Wes Santee
David Wesley Santee (March 25, 1932 – November 14, 2010) was an American middle distance runner and athlete who competed mainly in the 1,500 meters and mile events.
Born in Ashland, Kansas, Santee was nicknamed the "Ashland Antelope." Sante ...
ran 4:02.4 on 5 June 1953, the fourth-fastest mile ever. And at the end of the year, Australian
John Landy
John Michael Landy OLY (12 April 1930 – 24 February 2022) was an Australian middle-distance runner and state governor. He was the second man to break the four-minute mile barrier in the mile run and held the world records for the 1500-metre ...
ran 4:02.0.
Then early in 1954, Landy made some more attempts at the distance. On 21 January 1954, he ran 4:02.4 in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, then 4:02.6 on 23 February 1954, and at the end of the Australian season on 19 April he ran 4:02.6 again.
Bannister had been following Landy's attempts and was certain his Australian rival would succeed with each one. But knowing that Landy's season-closing attempt on 19 April would be his last until he travelled to
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
for another attempt, Bannister knew he had to make his attempt soon.
Sub-4-minute mile
This historic event took place on 6 May 1954 during a meet between
British AAA and
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
at
Iffley Road Track
The Roger Bannister running track, also known as the Oxford University track, is a 400-metres athletics running track and stadium in Oxford, England. It was where Sir Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile on 6 May 1954, when it was known ...
in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, watched by about 3,000 spectators.
With winds of up to before the event,
Bannister had said twice that he preferred not to run, to conserve his energy and efforts to break the 4-minute barrier; he would try again at another meet. However, the winds dropped just before the race was scheduled to begin, and Bannister did run.
The pace-setters from his major 1953 attempts, future
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
gold medallist
Christopher Chataway from the 2 May attempt, and future
Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
gold medallist
Chris Brasher
Christopher William Brasher CBE (21 August 1928 – 28 February 2003) was a British track and field athlete, sports journalist and co-founder of the London Marathon.
Early life and education
Born in Georgetown, British Guiana, Brasher went to ...
from the 27 June attempt, combined to provide pacing for Bannister's run. The race
Includes full footage of the race. was broadcast live by
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering th ...
and commentated by
1924 Olympic 100 metres champion
Harold Abrahams
Harold Maurice Abrahams (15 December 1899 – 14 January 1978) was an English track and field athlete. He was Olympic champion in 1924 in the 100 metres sprint, a feat depicted in the 1981 film '' Chariots of Fire''.
Biography
Early life
...
, of ''
Chariots of Fire
''Chariots of Fire'' is a 1981 British historical sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell ...
'' fame.
![Iffley Road Track, Oxford - blue plaque](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Iffley_Road_Track%2C_Oxford_-_blue_plaque.JPG)
Bannister had begun his day at a hospital in London, where he sharpened his racing spikes and rubbed graphite on them so they would not pick up too much cinder ash. He took a mid-morning train from
Paddington Station
Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services provided by the Great ...
to Oxford, nervous about the rainy, windy conditions that afternoon.
Being a dual-meet format, there were seven men entered in the mile: Alan Gordon, George Dole and Nigel Miller from Oxford University; and four British AAA runners: Bannister, his two pacemakers Brasher and Chataway, and
Tom Hulatt
William Thomas Hulatt (7 September 1930 – 21 May 1990) was an English athlete notable for finishing third behind Sir Christopher Chataway in the historic race in which Sir Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on 6 May 1954. He was ...
. Nigel Miller arrived as a spectator and he only realised that he was due to run when he read the programme. Efforts to borrow a running kit failed and he could not take part, thus reducing the field to six.
The race went off as scheduled at 6:00 pm, and Brasher and Bannister went immediately to the front of the pack.
Brasher (wearing No. 44) led both the first lap in 58 seconds and the half-mile in 1:58, with Bannister (No. 41) tucked in behind, and Chataway (No. 42) a stride behind Bannister.
Chataway moved to the front after the second lap and maintained the pace with a 3:01 split at the final lap bell. Chataway continued to lead around the front turn until Bannister began his finishing kick with about 275 yards to go (just over half a lap), running the last lap in just under 59 seconds.
The stadium announcer for the race was
Norris McWhirter
Norris Dewar McWhirter (12 August 192519 April 2004) was a British writer, political activist, co-founder of The Freedom Association, and a television presenter. He and his twin brother Ross were known internationally for the founding of ''Gui ...
, who went on to co-publish and co-edit the ''
Guinness Book of Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
''. He teased the crowd by delaying his announcement of Bannister's race time for as long as possible:
The roar of the crowd drowned out the rest of the announcement. Bannister's time was 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.
The claim that a four-minute mile was once thought to be impossible by "informed" observers was and is a widely propagated myth created by sportswriters and debunked by Bannister himself in his memoir, ''The Four Minute Mile'' (1955).
The reason the myth took hold was that four minutes was a round number that lay slightly out of reach of the world record (by just 1.4 seconds) for nine years, which was longer than it might otherwise have been due to the effect of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in interrupting athletic progress in the combatant countries. The Swedish runners,
and
Arne Andersson
Arne Andersson (27 October 1917 – 1 April 2009) was a Swedish middle distance runner who became famous for his rivalry with his compatriot Gunder Hägg in the 1940s. Anderson set a 1500 metres world record in Gothenburg in August 1943 with a ...
, in a series of head-to-head races in the period 1942–45, had already
lowered the world mile record by five seconds to the pre-Bannister record. Knowledgeable track fans are still most impressed by the fact that Bannister ran a four-minute mile on very low-mileage training by modern standards.
Just 46 days later, on 21 June 1954, Bannister's record was broken by his rival, John Landy, in
Turku
Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, with a time of 3 minutes 57.9 seconds, which the
IAAF
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
ratified as 3 minutes 58.0 seconds due to the rounding rules then in effect.
1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games
On 7 August, at the
1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, B.C., Bannister, running for England, competed against Landy for the first time in a race billed as "The Miracle Mile". They were the only two men in the world to have broken the 4-minute barrier, with Landy still holding the world record.
![Bannister and Landy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Bannister_and_Landy.jpg)
Landy led for most of the race, building a lead of 10 yards in the third lap (of four), but was overtaken on the last bend, and Bannister won in 3 min 58.8 s, with Landy 0.8 s behind in 3 min 59.6 s.
Bannister and Landy have both pointed out that the crucial moment of the race was that at the moment when Bannister decided to try to pass Landy, Landy looked over his left shoulder to gauge Bannister's position and Bannister burst past him on the right, never relinquishing the lead.
A larger-than-life bronze sculpture of the two men at this moment was created by Vancouver sculptor
Jack Harman in 1967 from a photograph by ''
Vancouver Sun
The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...
'' photographer Charlie Warner and stood for many years at the entrance to
Empire Stadium; after the stadium was demolished the sculpture was moved a short distance away to the Hastings and Renfrew entrance of the
Pacific National Exhibition
The Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) is a nonprofit organization that operates an annual 15-day summer fair, 10-day winter fair, a seasonal amusement park, and indoor arenas in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The PNE fair is held at Hastings ...
(PNE) fairgrounds. Regarding this sculpture, Landy quipped: "While
Lot's wife
In the Bible, Lot's wife is a figure first mentioned in . The Book of Genesis describes how she became a pillar of salt after she looked back at Sodom. She is not named in the Bible but is called "Ado" or "Edith" in some Jewish traditions. She ...
was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back, I am probably the only one ever turned into bronze for looking back."
Bannister went on that season to win the so-called
metric mile, the 1500 m, at the
European Championships in
Bern
german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese
, neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen
, website ...
, Switzerland, on 29 August, with a championship record in a time of 3 min 43.8 s.
He retired from athletics late in 1954 to concentrate on his work as a junior doctor and to pursue a career in
neurology
Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...
.
He was awarded a
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
the following year for "services to amateur athletics".
Sports Council and knighthood
Bannister later became the first Chairman of the Sports Council (now called
Sport England
Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded par ...
) and was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
for this service in 1975. Under his patronage, central and local government funding of sports centres and other sports facilities was rapidly increased, and he also initiated the first testing for use of
anabolic steroids
Anabolic steroids, also known more properly as anabolic–androgenic steroids (AAS), are steroidal androgens that include natural androgens like testosterone as well as synthetic androgens that are structurally related and have similar effects t ...
in sport.
Medical career
After retiring from athletics in 1954, Bannister spent the next forty years practising medicine in the field of
neurology
Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...
. In March 1957, he joined the
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...
at Crookham, where he started his two years of
National Service
National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939.
The ...
, with the rank of
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
.
His major contribution to academic medicine was in the field of
autonomic failure, an area of neurology focusing on illnesses characterised by the loss of certain automatic responses of the nervous system (for example, elevated heart rate when standing up). He ultimately published more than eighty papers, mostly concerned with the
autonomic nervous system
The autonomic nervous system (ANS), formerly referred to as the vegetative nervous system, is a division of the peripheral nervous system that supplies viscera, internal organs, smooth muscle and glands. The autonomic nervous system is a control ...
,
cardiovascular physiology Cardiovascular physiology is the study of the cardiovascular system, specifically addressing the physiology of the heart ("cardio") and blood vessels ("vascular").
These subjects are sometimes addressed separately, under the names cardiac physiolog ...
, and
multiple system atrophy.
He edited ''Autonomic Failure: A Textbook of Clinical Disorders of the Autonomic Nervous System'' with C.J. Mathias, a colleague at
St Mary's, as well as five editions of ''Brain and Bannister's Clinical Neurology.''
Bannister always said he was more proud of his contribution to medicine than his running career. In 2014, Bannister said in an interview: "I'd rather be remembered for my work in neurology than my running. If you offered me the chance to make a great breakthrough in the study of the autonomic nerve system, I'd take that over the four minute mile right away. I worked in medicine for sixty years. I ran for about eight."
Personal life
![Roger Bannister with family 1959](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Roger_Bannister_with_family_1959.jpg)
In 1955, Bannister married the Swedish artist Moyra Elver Jacobsson in
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
, Switzerland. Moyra Jacobsson-Bannister was the daughter of the Swedish economist
Per Jacobsson, who served as managing director of the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...
.
They had four children: Carol E. E. Bannister (b. 1957); Clive C. R. Bannister (b. 1959), an insurance industry executive; Thurstan R. R. Bannister (b. July 1960), a company director in New York; and Charlotte B. M. Bannister (b. 1963), now The Reverend Charlotte Bannister-Parker, associate priest at the
University Church of St Mary the Virgin
The University Church of St Mary the Virgin (St Mary's or SMV for short) is an Oxford church situated on the north side of the High Street. It is the centre from which the University of Oxford grew and its parish consists almost exclusively of un ...
in Oxford.
In 2011, Bannister was diagnosed with
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
.
He died on 3 March 2018 at the age of 88 in Oxford, 20 days before his 89th birthday.
He is buried in
Wolvercote Cemetery
Wolvercote Cemetery is a cemetery in the parish of Wolvercote and district of Cutteslowe in Oxford, England. Its main entrance is on Banbury Road and it has a side entrance in Five Mile Drive. It has a funeral chapel, public toilets and a small a ...
near Oxford. His widow, Lady Moyra Bannister, died in Oxford on 4 November 2022, at the age of 94.
Legacy
On the 50th anniversary of running the mile in under four minutes, Bannister was interviewed by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. At the conclusion of the interview, Bannister was asked whether he looked back on the sub-4-minute mile as the most important achievement of his life. Bannister replied that he instead saw his subsequent forty years of practising medicine and some of the new procedures he introduced as being more significant. He also said that, in terms of athletic achievement, he felt his performances at the 1952 Olympics and the 1954 Commonwealth Games were more significant than running the sub-4-minute mile.
Ironically, although Roger Bannister is arguably the most famous record-setter in the mile, he is also the man who held the record for the shortest period of time, at least since the
started to ratify records.
award for 1954 (awarded in January 1955) and is one of the few non-Americans recognised by the American-published magazine as such.
In a UK poll conducted by
in 2002, the British public voted Bannister's historic sub-4-minute mile as number 13 in the list of the
.
Bannister is the subject of the ESPN film ''Four Minutes'' (2005). This film is a dramatisation, its major departures from the factual record being the creation of a fictional character as Bannister's coach, who was actually
, an Austrian, and secondly his meeting his wife, Moyra Jacobsson, in the early 1950s when in fact they met in London only a few months before the Miracle Mile itself took place. Bannister was portrayed by
.
''Bannister: Everest on the Track, The Roger Bannister Story'' is a 2016 TV documentary about his childhood and youth in
and postwar Britain and the breaking of the 4-minute mile barrier, with interviews of participants and witnesses to the 1954 race, and later runners inspired by Bannister and his achievement, including
.
'', about the rivalry between Bannister, John Landy and Wes Santee to be first to break the 4-minute mile mark, Bannister was portrayed by actor
.
In 1996 Pembroke College at the University of Oxford (where Bannister was Master for eight years) named a building in honour of his achievements. The Bannister Building, an 18th-century townhouse in Brewer Street, was converted to provide accommodation for graduate students. Following extensive refurbishments during 2011 and 2012, it became part of the building complex surrounding the Rokos Quad, and was then used for undergraduate accommodation.
In March 2004
named a lecture theatre after Bannister; on display is the stopwatch that was used to time the race, stopped at 3:59. Bannister also gave his name to the trophy presented to the winning team in the annual athletics
, as well as the award given to the graduating doctor of Imperial College School of Medicine who has achieved most in the sporting community. Bannister also purchased the cup (which bears his name) awarded to the winning team in the annual United Hospitals Cross-Country Championship, organised by
. The championship is contested by the five medical schools in London and the
.
In 2012 Bannister carried the Olympic flame at the site of his memorable feat, in the
On 28 September 2021 a memorial stone honouring Sir Roger, "pioneering neurologist, world champion runner", was unveiled in
, in the area known as 'Scientists' corner'.
The 50th anniversary of Bannister's achievement was marked by a commemorative British
. The reverse of the coin shows the legs of a runner and a stopwatch (stopped at 3:59.4). There were 9,032,500 minted. The coin was re-struck for collector sets in 2019 as part of the
'50 Years of the 50p coin', along with other designs.
In the gallery of Pembroke College dining hall there is a cabinet containing over 80 exhibits covering Bannister's athletic career and including some academic highlights.
Bannister received many honours for his achievements in sports and medicine. He was
. He received honorary degrees (
in 1984. He also received honorary degrees from the
in 2014. In 2000, Bannister received the Golden Plate Award of the
in 2004.
.
* Bale, John. ''Roger Bannister and the four-minute mile: Sports myth and sports history'' (Routledge, 2012)
* Bale, John. "Amateurism, Capital and Roger Bannister." ''Sport in History'' 26.3 (2006): 484–501.
* Bannister, Roger (1955), ''The Four-Minute Mile''. Revised and enlarged 50th anniversary (of the race) edition, 2004, The Lyons Press.
*
'. .
* Booth, Douglas. "Sport history and the seeds of a postmodern discourse." ''Rethinking History'' 13.2 (2009): 153–174.
* Bourne, Nicholas David. ''Fast science: A history of training theory and methods for elite runners through 1975'' (U of Texas at Austin, 2008)
* ''The First Four Minutes: ESPN Classic Television Programme''.
* ''The Four Minute Mile'' TV mini-series (1988), available on DVD.
* Cameron, Julia (1993), ''The Artist's Way''. Oxford, London: Pan Books. .
*
* Nelson, Cordner and Quercetani, Roberto (1985), ''The Milers'', Tafnews Press, 1985, , pp. 181–215
* Quercetani, R. L. (1964), ''A World History of Track and Field Athletics, 1864–1964'',
. (A history of the mile/1500 m. event.)