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
sports doctors track
Doctors and scientists said 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
legs toes break
I couldn't touch my toes with straight legs, but I could break 4 minutes for the mile.
running giving-up records
The human spirit is indomitable. No one can ever say you must not run faster than this or jump higher than that. There will never be a time when the human spirit will not be able to better existing records.
sports athlete thinking
The reason sport is attractive to many of the general public is that it's filled with reversals. What you think may happen doesn't happen. A champion is beaten, an unknown becomes a champion.
heart brain organs
It is the brain, not the heart or lungs, that is the critical organ.
unity movement conscious
No longer conscious of my movement, I discovered a new unity with nature. I had found a new source of power and beauty, a source I never dreamt existed.
running drama elements
The mile has all the elements of a drama.
sports athlete opportunity
If there was the opportunity to climb a mountain, or to go ballooning, or some adventurous activity, I would always be keen to do it. I loved the countryside.
running men blame
If a man coaches himself, then he has only himself to blame when he is beaten.
sports running athlete
I raced supremely well. I felt I was as well fitted to do it as I had ever been, and as perhaps I might ever be. I went climbing three weeks before, because I was feeling fed up with running.
sports running country
My introduction to track racing was through the background of cross country running, which is not a sport perhaps as popular in America as it is in England.
athlete years people
My family actually lived in the same village for about 400 years. They had great stability until the last century. People lived and intermarried in small villages.
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.
sports essence important
The essence of sports is that while you're doing it, nothing else matters, but after you stop, there is a place, generally not very important, where you would put it.