Four-minute mile

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This article is about the running of a mile in under four minutes. For the album by The Get Up Kids, see Four Minute Mile.

In athletics, the four-minute mile is the running of a mile (1,609.344 metres) in under four minutes. It was once thought by some to be impossible, but since it was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister the 'four minute barrier' has been broken by many male athletes, and is now the standard of all professional middle distance runners. In the last 50 years the mile record has been lowered by almost 17 seconds. Still, four minutes remains the standard by which all male amateur milers are measured.^{[citation needed]}

Blue plaque recording the first ever sub-four-minute mile run by Roger Bannister on 6 May 1954 at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track.

1 Record holders
2 American High School Athletes
3 Popular culture
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Record holders

John Walker managed to run 129 sub-four-minute miles during his career (during which he was the first person to run over 100 sub 4 minute miles), and American Steve Scott has run the most sub-four-minute miles, with 136. Currently, the mile record is held by Hicham El Guerrouj, who set a time of 3 minutes 43.13 seconds in Rome in 1999.

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 Irish runner Eamonn Coghlan became the first man over age 40 to run a sub-four-minute mile.

No woman has yet run a four-minute mile, although it is thought to be physically possible. The current women's record holder is retired Russian Svetlana Masterkova, with a time of 4 minutes 12.56 seconds.

[edit] American High School Athletes

Running under four minutes for either a mile or just 1600 meters is considered an even higher milestone on the high school level due to the lower physical maturity and competition. One of Jim Ryun's biggest claims to fame was to be the first to break four minutes at the high school level in 1964 (with a time of 3 minutes 59 seconds) and the next year he lowered the mark to 3:55.3. In 2001, Alan Webb further lowered the high school record to 3:53.3, although his accomplishment is generally considered less impressive than Ryun's because it stacked up less favorably against the world competition at the time, was pushed under higher overall competition in the Prefontaine Classic, and was done on a faster all-weather track.^{[citation needed]}. In total, only 4 high school athletes have ever run under four minutes in the mile, a total of 9 times. In 1966, two years after Jim Ryun, Tim Danielson ran a 3:59.4, and in 1967, Marty Liquori ran a 3:59.8. It was 32 years before Webb ran a 3:59.86 on an indoor track, becoming the first High School athlete to break four minutes on an indoor track. Webb then ran a 3:53.3 on an outdoor track during the spring season, the current high school record.

[edit] Popular culture

In 1988, the ABC and the BBC co-produced a miniseries dramatisation of the race to the four-minute mile, featuring Richard Huw as Bannister and Nique Needles as Landy. It was written by David Williamson and directed by Jim Goddard.