“There is not a single athlete of my generation who was not inspired by Roger and his achievements both on and off the track,” Coe tweeted.It was a typical British afternoon in early May: wet, cool and blustery. IAAF President Sebastian Coe said Bannister’s death represented a “day of intense sadness both for our nation and for all of us in athletics.”Ĭoe ran a mile in a world record 3 minutes, 47.33 seconds in 1981 between winning gold medals in the 1,500 metres at the 19 Olympics. “My medical work has been my achievement and my family with 14 grandchildren. “None of my athletics was the greatest achievement,” he said.
As chairman of the Sports Council between 19, he developed the first test for anabolic steroids. (Allsport Hulton/Archive)īannister capped his brilliant summer of 1954 by winning the 1,500 metres at the European Championships in Bern, Switzerland, in a games record of 3:43.8.īannister, who was chosen as Sports Illustrated’s first Sportsman of the Year in 1954, retired from competition and pursued a full-time career in neurology. Roger Bannister is pictured in this portrait taken in 1954. I drove on, impelled by a combination of fear and pride.”īannister considered that victory even more satisfying than the first 4-minute mile because it came in a competitive race against his greatest rival. I felt at that moment that it was my chance to do one thing supremely well. The tape meant finality - extinction perhaps. “The only reality was the next 200 yards of track under my feet. “The world seemed to stand still, or did not exist,” he wrote in his book, “The First Four Minutes.” (Norman Potter/Central Press/Getty Images) The first time a mile has been run in under four minutes. Roger Bannister (centre) with Chris Chataway (right) and Chris Brasher (1928 – 2003) after Bannister broke the mile world record with a time of 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. With 250 yards to go, Bannister surged past Chataway, his long arms and legs pumping and his lungs gasping for oxygen. Bannister would need to run the final lap in 59 seconds. Chris Chataway, a distance specialist, paced a third lap of 62.3 - 3:00.4. With Chris Brasher setting the pace on the cinder track, they ran a first lap in 57.5 seconds, then 60.7 - 1:58.2 for the half mile. But, shortly before 6 p.m., the wind died down.
When Bannister looked up at the English flag whipping in the wind atop a nearby church, he feared he would have to call off the record attempt. Article content In this May 6, 1954, file photo, British athlete Roger Bannister breaks the tape to become the first man ever to break the four minute barrier in the mile at Iffly Field in Oxford, England. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Instead of retiring from the sport, he decided to chase the 4-minute mark. He might not have set the milestone but for the disappointment of finishing without a medal in the 1,500 metres, known as the metric mile, in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. “I’d like to see it as a metaphor not only for sport, but for life and seeking challenges.” “It became a symbol of attempting a challenge in the physical world of something hitherto thought impossible,” Bannister said as he approached the 50th anniversary of the feat. The enduring image of the lanky Oxford medical student - head tilted back, eyes closed and mouth agape as he strained across the finishing tape - captured the public’s imagination, made him a global celebrity and lifted the spirits of Britons still suffering through postwar austerity. “It’s amazing that more people have climbed Mount Everest than have broken the 4-minute mile,” Bannister said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2012.
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