Hear the voices of Olympic Track Greats, including Jesse Owens, winner of 4 Gold Medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin; Josy Barthel, a Luxembourgish runner who won the men's 1500 meters at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics; and Roger Bannister, an English athlete best known for breaking the 4-minute mile.
Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, born on March 23, 1929, is an English former athlete best known for running the first mile in less than 4 minutes, remarkably while practicing as a junior doctor. This was finally achieved on May 6th 1954 at Iffley Road Track in Oxford, with Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher providing the pacing. The result time was 3 min 59.4 sec. Retiring from running shortly after, Bannister went on to become a distinguished neurologist and an important contributor to research into the human nervous system.
