In
athleticsTrack and field athletics is a collection of sports events that involve running, throwing, jumping and walking. Organised athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC, and most modern events are conducted by the member clubs of the International Association of Athletics...
, the
four-minute mile is the
runningRunning is a means for an animal to move on foot. It is defined in sporting terms as a gait in which at some point all feet are off the ground at the same time. This is in contrast to walking, where one foot is always in contact with the ground, the legs are kept mostly straight and the center of...
of a mile (1,609.344 metres, 5280 feet) in less than four
minuteA minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle.The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute occasionally has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second...
s. It was first achieved in 1954 by
Roger BannisterSir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CBE is an English former athlete best known as the first man in history to run the mile in less than 4 minutes...
in 3'59.4". The 'four minute barrier' has since been broken by many male athletes, and is now the standard of all professional
middle distanceMiddle distance track events are track races longer than sprints up to 3000 metres.-Middle distance events:The standard middle distances are the 800 m, 1500 m, mile , and the 3000 m . In the United States, the 3000 m is more common at the high school and collegiate levels...
runners. In the last 50 years the mile record has been lowered by almost 17 seconds.
John Walker managed to run 135 sub-four-minute miles during his career (during which he was the first person to run over 100 sub-four-minute miles), and
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Steve Scott has run the most sub-four-minute miles, with 136.
In
athleticsTrack and field athletics is a collection of sports events that involve running, throwing, jumping and walking. Organised athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC, and most modern events are conducted by the member clubs of the International Association of Athletics...
, the
four-minute mile is the
runningRunning is a means for an animal to move on foot. It is defined in sporting terms as a gait in which at some point all feet are off the ground at the same time. This is in contrast to walking, where one foot is always in contact with the ground, the legs are kept mostly straight and the center of...
of a mile (1,609.344 metres, 5280 feet) in less than four
minuteA minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle.The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute occasionally has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second...
s. It was first achieved in 1954 by
Roger BannisterSir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CBE is an English former athlete best known as the first man in history to run the mile in less than 4 minutes...
in 3'59.4". The 'four minute barrier' has since been broken by many male athletes, and is now the standard of all professional
middle distanceMiddle distance track events are track races longer than sprints up to 3000 metres.-Middle distance events:The standard middle distances are the 800 m, 1500 m, mile , and the 3000 m . In the United States, the 3000 m is more common at the high school and collegiate levels...
runners. In the last 50 years the mile record has been lowered by almost 17 seconds.
Record holders
John Walker managed to run 135 sub-four-minute miles during his career (during which he was the first person to run over 100 sub-four-minute miles), and
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Steve Scott has run the most sub-four-minute miles, with 136. Currently, the mile record is held by
Hicham El GuerroujHicham El Guerrouj is a Moroccan former middle distance runner. He is the current holder of the 1500 metres, mile and outdoor 2000 metres world records, as well as a double Olympic gold medalist....
, who set a time of 3 minutes 43.13 seconds in Rome in 1999.
In 1964
Jim RyunJames Ronald Ryun is an American former track athlete and politician, who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007, representing the 2nd District in Kansas. In the 2006 election, Ryun was defeated by Democratic challenger Nancy Boyda...
became the first high school runner to break four minutes for the mile, running 3:59.0 as a junior and a then-American record 3:55.3 as a senior in 1965. The high school record stood until
Alan WebbAlan Webb may refer to:* Alan Webb , , English actor* Alan Webb , , American track athlete* Alan Webb , English football player...
ran 3:53.43 in 2001.
Another illustration of the progression of performance in the men's mile is that in 1994, forty years after Bannister's breaking of the barrier, the
IrishIreland is a country in north-western Europe. The modern sovereign state occupies about five-sixths of the island of Ireland, which was partitioned on 3 May 1921. It is a parliamentary democracy and a republic...
runner
Eamonn CoghlanEamonn Christopher Coghlan is a 3-time Olympian and world championship winning athlete. Coghlan an Irishman was born in Drimnagh, County Dublin, Republic of Ireland and later also became a naturalized United States citizen...
became the first man over age 40 to run a sub-four-minute mile.
No woman has yet run a four-minute mile: the current women's record holder is retired
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n
Svetlana MasterkovaSvetlana Alexandrovna Masterkova is a Russian former middle distance runner and current world record holder for the mile. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal in both the 800 and 1,500 metres....
, with a time of 4 minutes 12.56 seconds.
In 1997,
Daniel KomenDaniel Kipngetich Komen is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner. Komen is the only man to achieve back-to-back sub-four-minute miles, and is also the second man ever to break both the 13-minute mark in the 5,000-meter run and the 3½-minute mark for the 1,500-meter run...
of
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
ran two miles in less than eight minutes, doubling up on Bannister's accomplishment.
http://www.alltime-athletics.com/m_2miok.htm
Popular culture
In 1988, the
ABCThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC", is Australia's national public broadcaster. With a total budget of AUD$1.13 Billion annually, the corporation provides television, radio, online and mobile services throughout metropolitan and regional Australia, as well as...
and the BBC co-produced The Four Minute Mile, a
miniseriesA miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a production which tells a story in a pre-planned limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
dramatisation of the race to the four-minute mile, featuring Richard Huw as Bannister and Nique Needles as Landy. It was written by
David WilliamsonDavid Keith Williamson AO is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.-Biography:...
and directed by Jim Goddard.
A second film version (entitled Four Minutes) was made in 2005, starring Jamie MacLachlan as Bannister.
See also
- World record progression for the mile run
Accurate times for the mile run were not recorded until after 1850, when the first precisely measured running tracks were built. Foot racing had become popular in England by the 17th century, when footmen would race and their masters would wager on the result...
- Athletics (track and field)
Track and field athletics is a collection of sports events that involve running, throwing, jumping and walking. Organised athletics are traced back to the Ancient Olympic Games from 776 BC, and most modern events are conducted by the member clubs of the International Association of Athletics...
- Dream Mile
The Dream Mile was a match race between Jim Ryun and Marty Liquori on May 16, 1971. The event took place at the Martin Luther King International Freedom Games at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
- Middle distance track event
Middle distance track events are track races longer than sprints up to 3000 metres.-Middle distance events:The standard middle distances are the 800 m, 1500 m, mile , and the 3000 m . In the United States, the 3000 m is more common at the high school and collegiate levels...
External links