Roger Bannister
Roger Bannister
Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister CBEis an English former middle-distance athlete, physician and academic, who ran the first sub-four-minute mile...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionRunner
Date of Birth23 March 1929
athlete school hard-work
My concentration was really on getting to university and becoming a doctor. My parents let me know that school marks were important. Achievement was something which came by hard work.
war school athlete
I lived on the top of one hill and the school was at the top of another hill. Nobody ever went to school by car - we didn't have any cars during the war. So that to and from school was itself a training.
athlete school acceptance
My athleticism was really the core to social acceptance, because in those days the overwhelming number of students came from more of a public school background than I did.
breaking collapsing die doctors figured finish mile scientists track
Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead.
attach importance people
I don't attach the importance to it as a lot of other people do,
bit couple crowded everybody later lose minutes rushed sight
I did lose my sight for a bit because I was crowded in. Everybody rushed on to the track. Then a couple of minutes later the announcement came.
aspects continues critical fortunate four laps magical minute pathway reached record
It was fortunate for me that the pathway of record breaking, which continues in all aspects of athletics, had just reached this magical critical four minutes: four laps of one minute each, on a quarter-mile track.
academic aspire britain dare good insidious mere publicity record spoilt spoken whether
There were only 170 neurologists in Britain then and, whether spoken or unspoken, there was this insidious feeling. How can Bannister, a mere athlete, probably spoilt by all the publicity and fame, dare aspire to neurology? But I'd done a lot of research, and my academic record was very good.
demanding seems work
I had always wanted to become a neurologist, which is one of the most demanding vocations in medicine. Where do you stop, after all, with the brain? How does it function? What are its limits? The work seems unending.
affair certain course exciting helps life met opened point pursuit running
It has been a life-long pursuit for me, ... Running is an affair of youth. It helps you through adolescence and, for me of course, at a certain point it opened doors. I met people, and traveled. Of course it can make life more exciting and fulfilling.
elements mile
The mile has all the elements of drama.
chasm himself last man save spring taking tape threatens
I leapt at the tape like a man taking his last spring to save himself from the chasm that threatens to engulf him.
beauty earth found knew move power seemed source
The earth seemed to move with me. I found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never knew existed.
drive effort further gets himself man painful
The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful will win.