MASTER OF THE ‘ THREE’
ROGER Bannister, who as a lanky medical student at Oxford in 1954 electrified the sports world and lifted postwar England’s spirits when he became the first athlete to run a mile in under four minutes, has died at 88.
Bannister died on Saturday in Oxford, the city where he accomplished the feat many had thought impossible.
He had been slowed in recent years by Parkinson’s disease and, before that, an ankle shattered in a 1975 car accident.
On a typically cool, wet and blustery English day in May nearly 64 years ago, Bannister put on his spikes and ran four laps around a cinder track in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds, for one of the defining sporting achievements of the 20th century.
The image of the young Bannister – head tilted back, eyes closed and mouth agape as he strained across the finishing tape – captured the public’s imagination, made him a global celebrity and boosted the morale of Britons still suffering through austerity measures.
Bannister soon retired from competition and went on to a long and distinguished career in medicine, and his mark was broken over and over again, with the world record for the mile now at 3: 43.13.
But he was a national hero to the end. Prime Minister Theresa May saluted Bannister as a “British sporting icon whose achievements were an inspiration to us all”.
While he will forever be remembered for his running, Bannister said he considered his contributions to neurology more satisfying.
“I wouldn’t claim to have made any great discoveries, but at any rate I satisfactorily inched forward in our knowledge of a particular aspect of medicine,” he said.
“I’m far more content with that than I am about any of the running I did earlier.”
On the day he made history, May 6, 1954, Bannister looked up at the white- and- red English flag whipping in the wind atop a church and figured he would have to call off the attempt.
But then, shortly after 6pm, the wind subsided and the race was on.
With two friends running with him as pacesetters, Bannister churned around Oxford’s Iffley Road track, his long arms and legs pumping, his lungs gasping for air.
He put on a furious kick over the final 300 yards and nearly collapsed as he crossed the finish line.
The announcer read out the time: “three...”
The rest was drowned out by the roar of the crowd. The “three” was all that mattered.