The modest runner who raced into history
Sir Roger Bannister is slightly ambivalent about the record he set over half a century ago.
Sir Roger Bannister is slightly ambivalent about the record he set over half a century ago, said Jane Fryer in the Daily Mail (U.K.). In 1954, at age 25, he became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. The 2,000-strong crowd at the Iffley Road running track in Oxford, England, went wild as he crossed the finish line. “I thought all the fuss might last a day, or a week, or a month, but it’s gone on for years,” he says. “And at some stages it’s been very difficult for people to take seriously what else I was doing.” That “what else” has included a brilliant career as a neurologist and as an author of the definitive book on nervous-system diseases. Bannister, now 83, was working as a junior doctor when he took part in the famous Oxford race, and could only squeeze in 45 minutes of training a day. “But it was all about quality, not quantity—so I didn’t waste time jogging, ever.” Bannister knows he would never have set any records if he were competing today, as professional athletes have to train around the clock and don’t have time for a distracting second career. “If I’d had to give something up, it would always have been running, never medicine. Medicine was my life.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
The daily gossip: Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes break silence on 'GMA' firing, Margot Robbie refused to move 'Barbie' away from 'Oppenheimer,' and more
The daily gossip: December 5, 2023
By Brendan Morrow, The Week US Published
-
Could the fight over the southern border kill American aid to Ukraine?
Today's Big Question Republican demands for boosted border security have thrown a major wrench in a much-needed aid package to help Ukraine
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
College football has a major controversy. Will Congress get involved?
Talking Point Why Florida State was left out of the College Football Playoff
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published