Roger Bannister, first man to run mile in under 4 minutes, dies at 88
Roger Bannister, the first man to run the mile in less than four minutes, died Saturday in Oxford, England, his family said in a statement. He was 88.
Despite his many other accomplishments, the world has always remembered him for what he did more than 60 years ago on a cinder track in the early evening of what had been a blustery, rainy day in Oxford. On May 6, 1954, Bannister, then a gangly 25-year-old runner noted for his strong finishing kick, ran a mile race in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.
It was the athletic equivalent of landing on the moon.
The four-minute mile was one of those mystical sports goals, so desirable because it seemed so unreachable. Runners - and scientists - had argued strenuously for years about the possibility of such a feat. Could a human withstand the strain such exertion would put on a body? Would he be fit for any kind of life afterward? Would he even survive such an
