Our new queen had been crowned the year before, Everest had been climbed in 1953. "I thought it would be right for Britain to try to get this," Bannister said in 2012.
He also wanted to deliver something special for his country. "As it became clear that somebody was going to do it, I felt that I would prefer it to be me," Bannister said in an AP interview. Bannister, Landy and American miler Wes Santee were all threatening to break the mark and it became a matter of who would get there first. But, criticized by the British media and disappointed in his own performance, he decided to keep running, dedicating himself to beating the 4-minute mile and winning gold at the '54 Empire Games.īy 1954, Hagg's record mile time had stood for nine years. Had he won Olympic gold that day, Bannister almost certainly would have retired. With his rhythm thrown off, Bannister finished fourth in a final won by Josy Barthel of Luxembourg. Just before the games, he learned that organizers had added an extra round of heats, meaning he would have to run on three consecutive days. By modern standards, his daily half-hour workout was remarkably light.īannister was considered the favorite for the Helsinki gold in the 1,500 meters - the shorter metric mile distance run in the Olympics. The 19-year-old was selected as a "possible" for the British Olympic team, but decided he wasn't ready and focused on preparing for the 1952 Helsinki Games.īy then, Bannister was a full-time medical student and had to juggle his studies with his training. With the 1948 London Olympics approaching, Bannister was running mile times of around 4:10. "I knew from this day that I could develop this newfound ability," he reflected in later life. Instead of dropping out of the race as pacers normally do, he kept running and beat the field by 20 yards. "I made up my mind then when I got to Oxford, I would take up running seriously," Bannister said.Īs a first-year student on an academic scholarship at Oxford, Bannister caught his coaches' attention while running as a pacemaker in a mile race on March 22, 1947. They watched British middle-distance star Sydney Wooderson, who had emerged as a rival to the trio of Swedish runners who had taken the mile world record down close to the 4-minute mark. At the outbreak of World War II, the family moved to the city of Bath, where Bannister sometimes ran to and from school.īannister's passion for running took off in 1945 when his father took him to a track meet at London's White City Stadium, which was built to host the 1908 Olympics. "I knew enough medicine and physiology to know it wasn't a physical barrier, but I think it had become a psychological barrier."īannister was born on March 23, 1929, in the London borough of Harrow. "There was no logic in my mind that if you can run a mile in 4 minutes, 1 and 2/5ths, you can't run it in 3:59," he said. The 4-minute mark seemed like a brick wall that would never be toppled. But, time and again, runners came up short.
When Sweden's Gunder Hagg ran 4:01.4 in 1945, the chase was truly on. The numbers were easy for the public to grasp: 1 mile, 4 laps, 4 minutes.
The quest to break the 4-minute mile carried a special mystique. "My medical work has been my achievement and my family with 14 grandchildren," he said. While he will forever be remembered for his running, Bannister considered his long medical career in neurology as his life's greatest accomplishment.
Bannister regarded that as his greatest race because it came in a competitive championship against his fiercest rival. "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.īannister followed up his 4-minute milestone a few months later by beating Australia's John Landy in the "Miracle Mile" or "Mile of the Century" at the Empire Games in Vancouver, British Columbia with both men going under 4 minutes.
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