Less than a year earlier, the New Zealander Mountaineer Sir Edmund Hilary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay had become the first people to stand atop Everest, the world’s highest peak. In the sphere of athletics, however, the sub-four-minute mile was a mountain long thought unconquerable.
But not by Bannister, a 25-year-old medical student who had even helped to lay the track used for the annual race between Oxford University students and the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) of England and Wales. His winning time of 3:59.4 minutes is even more remarkable in the context of his preparation: training sessions jammed in around studying hard and working shifts at a hospital.
First person in the world to run a mile in under four minutes
Bannister went 0.6 seconds under four minutes
He was 25 at the time and studying medicine at Oxford
His world record time of 3:59.4 minutes stood for only 46 days
He retired from running after receiving his medical degree in 1955
Bannister went on to become one of Britain’s leading neurologists
The running track at Oxford was renamed in his honour
A dedicated student-athlete at the peak of their powers – sound familiar?
In this respect Bannister was much like many of the several thousand hopefuls who will convene in North-Rhine Westphalia next summer for the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games. And while nobody knows if a university might again produce anything as spectacular as Bannister’s record run, we can be certain of one thing.
The 12 days of sporting action in Bochum, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen and Mülheim an der Ruhr next summer will deliver so many unforgettable moments, with student-athletes going faster, higher and stronger than even they thought possible.