It was a blustery late spring day in 1954 and a young Oxford
medical student flung himself over the line in a mile race. There was an
agonising pause, and then the timekeeper announced the record: three minutes,
fifty-nine point four seconds. But no one heard anything after that first word three. One of the iconic barriers of sport had been broken, and Roger
Bannister became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes.
Sixty
years on and the letters still arrive on Roger Bannisters doormat, letters
testifying to the enduring appeal of the four-minute mile, and the inspiring
effect it had on a generation. In this frank, truthful memoir, one of the
iconic figures of sport tells for the first time the full story of the
dedication and talent that led to his unprecedented achievement, and of his
professional life as a distinguished doctor and neurologist once his (strictly
amateur) athletic career drew to a close.
