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Roger Bannister Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.
Roger Bannister facts for kids
Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CBE (born 23 March 1929) is an English athlete, physician and educator. He is best known for being the first person to run the mile in less than four minutes. Many people thought this was impossible, a natural limit of the human body, until he did it in 1954.
Bannister was born in Harrow, Middlesex. He was the first recipient of the Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year" award in January 1955. He was a neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford. He retired in 2001. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2011.
Quotations
- "We run, not only because we think it is doing us good, but ... because it helps us to do other things better."
- The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.
- "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle--when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."
Images for kids
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Blue plaque recording the first sub-4-minute mile run by Roger Bannister on 6 May 1954 at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track.
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Statue in Vancouver immortalizing the moment in "The Miracle Mile" when Roger Bannister passed John Landy, with Landy looking back to gauge his lead