Roger Bannister
Athlete and neurologist, first man to run a mile in under four minutes
Born 1929 · Died 2018
Photo: User:Pruneau · CC BY-SA 3.0
«The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.»
Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds in 1954, breaking a barrier many had called physiologically impossible. He then gave up competitive athletics and spent forty years as a neurologist.
Key achievements
- First man to run a mile under four minutes, 6 May 1954
- Became a leading consultant neurologist in autonomic disorders
Universities
London, South Kensington
Completed his clinical medical training at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, now part of Imperial College London.
Oxford, England
Read medicine at Exeter and Merton Colleges, and ran the four-minute mile on the Iffley Road track in 1954.
Facts
- He was training as a doctor at the time and fitted running around hospital work, with no coach and no sponsorship.
- His record lasted forty-six days before it was broken by his Australian rival John Landy.
- He always said he was prouder of his medical research on the autonomic nervous system than of the mile.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.