Week 5: ‘I felt so full of running.’

Wonderdate: 1954

Wondered into being by: Roger Bannister and John Landy

Wonderspan: 10 min

To experience this wonder at its best: Click on the full screen icon and make sure you can hear the sound.

Hello wonder-lovers.  Last week we heard that the Olympics opening ceremony will be based on 'wonder', which is a spooky coincidence because our Monday morning wonder this week has an olympic theme, sort of.  What are the chances?  The wonder schedule here says we got there first, but if they want the credit I'm sure that'll be ok.

This week's wonder is in two parts.  First up is Roger Bannister’s own commentary on the race in Oxfordshire in which he became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes.  This 1954 film is a grainy remembrance of a world first, accompanied by the crowd, increasingly frenzied with will-he-won't-he anticipation as the athletes pick up the pace with each lap.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWqwi6FcyH8

Just six weeks after Bannister’s achievement, the Australian John Landy, who had been running faster and faster mile races for some time, ran his own sub-four-minute mile.  Finishing a hefty 1.5 seconds quicker than Bannister, Landy took the world record from him.

Seven weeks on and many millions of people around the world tuned in their radios (and a few TVs) for a race billed as the Miracle Mile, in which these two rivals would battle it out.  At the time they were still the only athletes to have run a mile in under four minutes.  Would Landy’s ferocious pace wear his rival out, or would one of Bannister’s blistering finishes win through?  Find out here, and hang on at the end to hear each man pay generous tribute to the other.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP_NzZP_LK0

Extra…

Landy stops to help competitor and still wins the race.  Now that's a way of loving.  Just extraordinary!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wQLEKw0Nkc