Did people really think the four-minute mile was impossible?

Not really. The idea that experts once believed a four-minute mile was impossible is a myth, created by sportswriters and debunked by Roger Bannister himself, the man who first ran one. What made it feel like a wall was a round number sitting just out of reach. The Swedes Gunder Hägg and Arne Andersson had already chopped five seconds off the world record in their duels of the early 1940s, leaving it at 4:01.4 in 1945. Then progress stalled for nine years, partly because the Second World War interrupted athletics in the countries fighting it. Four minutes was only 1.4 seconds away, but it stayed just beyond the record long enough to become legendary.

Bannister was hardly a full-time athlete. He was a medical student who could train for only about an hour a day, and he ran his record as a junior doctor. On 6 May 1954 at Oxford's Iffley Road Track, the wind was so strong that he twice said he would rather not try; it dropped just before the start. Two friends, Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway, took turns setting the pace while Bannister tucked in behind them, then he kicked for home. When the announcer began 'The time was three...', the crowd's cheers drowned out the rest: 3:59.4.

The best proof the wall was never real came quickly. Just 46 days later, his rival John Landy ran 3:57.9 in Finland. Today more than 2,000 athletes have run under four minutes, including a man over 40 and a 15-year-old.