Impossible: Breaking the Four-Minute Mile

In 1954, England's Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile. Today, of course, the it is routine among the top runners, but until Sir Roger (knighted in 1975) accomplished it, it was considered beyond the realm of human possibility -- like climbing Mount Everest or walking on the moon. Bannister though, being a medical student at Oxford at the time, recognized it more of a global, psychological barrier. Sure enough, after he broke the record, within 3 years, 16 others had done it. He disappeared from the track scene shortly after his record run, and upon graduating, devoted his life to medicine. A near-fatal car accident in 1975 kept Bannister from running again, but gave him perspective. "The car accident said, 'Well, if there's something you want to do, you might as well do it, because after the next car accident, you might be dead.'"

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