Roger Bannister

Roger Gilbert Bannister was born in Harrow, Middlesex. Studying medicine at Exeter College, Oxford, and St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, Bannister applied scientific principles to running, calculating oxygen debt, mechanical efficiency, and pacing intervals while training during his lunch breaks between medical rounds.

For decades, medical experts and physiologists claimed that the human heart and lungs could not withstand the physical strain of running a mile in under four minutes. On a windy afternoon on 6 May 1954 at the Iffley Road Track in Oxford, before 3,000 spectators, twenty-five-year-old Bannister stepped to the starting line. Paced by training partners Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, Bannister kicked with everything he had down the final straightaway, collapsing across the tape.

Track announcer Norris McWhirter stepped to the microphone and announced: 'Ladies and gentlemen, here is the result of event nine, the one mile: 1st, No. 41, R. G. Bannister, with a time which is a new meeting and track record, and which, subject to ratification, will be a new English native, British national, all-comers, European, British Empire and world record. The time was three...' The rest of the announcement was drowned out by the thunderous roar of the crowd: 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Retiring weeks later after winning the 'Miracle Mile' over John Landy in Vancouver, Bannister devoted the rest of his life to neurology, serving as Master of Pembroke College, Oxford.