Roger Bannister Quotes

Roger Bannister (29)

Birth:	23rd March, 1929
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Athlete

About

Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister is an English former athlete best known for running the first mile in less than 4 minutes.
In the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister set a British record in the 1500 metres, but did not win the medal he expected. This humiliation strengthened his resolve to be the first 4-minute miler.

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Today's Anniversary - 23rd May

Births

• 1914 - Barbara Ward
• 1941 - Martin Puryear
• 1926 - Joe Slovo
• 1949 - Alan Garcia Perez
• 1947 - Paul Gruchow

Deaths

• 1906 - Henrik Ibsen
• 2012 - Paul Fussell
• 1995 - Owen Hart
• 1868 - Kit Carson
• 1965 - David Smith

• Athletics is a luxury.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Athletic

• My introduction to track racing was through the background of cross country running, which is not a sport perhaps as popular in America as it is in England.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in America, Country

• The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Effort

  Tags in Win

• The reason sport is attractive to many of the general public is that it’s filled with reversals. What you think may happen doesn’t happen. A champion is beaten, an unknown becomes a champion.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Happen, Reason

• When I was about to break a world record and become well known, my mother used to say that for her the important thing was for me to become a doctor – a career which had not been possible in her generation and in her society. Sport was something to be set aside.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Mother

  Tags in Important

• You get very tired, and there was a certain amount of pain and you slow up. Your legs are so tired that you are in fact slowing. If you don’t keep running, keep your blood circulating, the muscles stop pumping the blood back and you get dizzy.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Pain, Tired

• My concentration was really on getting to university and becoming a doctor. My parents let me know that school marks were important. Achievement was something which came by hard work.

  My concentration was really on getting to university and becoming a doctor. My parents let me know that school marks were important. Achievement was something which came by hard work.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Important

• My family actually lived in the same village for about 400 years. They had great stability until the last century. People lived and intermarried in small villages.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Family

• Our house was bombed, and the roof fell in. , and we were quite safe, but it brought home the realization. In two nights 400 people were killed in small town.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Home

• The Athletic Association competed against the University. So there was an event. You cannot break world records unless it is an established event, and you have three timekeepers, and the whole thing is organized.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Against

• I was involved in music, acting, and some running, but my firm wish was to become a doctor. That was the formative age when I had decided on the pattern of my career.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Firm, Career

• I raced supremely well. I felt I was as well fitted to do it as I had ever been, and as perhaps I might ever be. I went climbing three weeks before, because I was feeling fed up with running.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Fitted, Might

• I wanted to be a neurologist. That seemed to be the most difficult, most intriguing, and the most important aspect of medicine, which had links with psychology, aggression, behavior, and human affairs.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Aggression, Intriguing, Behavior, Important

• May is a very early time in the year and the weather is usually bad. You cannot run a fast mile race if there is a strong wind, because it makes your running uneven.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Year, Run, Weather, Strong

• It had always been a British preoccupation to hold this mile record.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Mile, Preoccupation, Hold, Record, British

• I found longer races boring. I found the mile just perfect.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Found, Boring

• I’ve always been very impatient. At age 10 I frankly found life boring, and I can remember age 9 having the awful thought, as it seems now looking back on it, A war! That should liven things up a bit!

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Impatient, Awful, Back, Found

• Life was very simple. My parents had come from the North of England, which is a fairly rugged, bleak, hard-working part of England, and so there was not the expectation of luxury.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Expectations

  Tags in Bleak, Parents, Part, Simple

• I lived on the top of one hill and the school was at the top of another hill. Nobody ever went to school by car – we didn’t have any cars during the war. So that to and from school was itself a training.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Top, School, Nobody

• I think that is a universal adolescent feeling, trying to find your place. The adolescent who is perfectly adjusted to his environment, I’ve yet to meet.

  Roger Bannister

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Adolescent, Adjusted, Trying, Feeling