Chasing the Mile
23 Aug 1886 – ongoing82 items
athleticsrecordsFour laps, one record at a time
In 1886 a professional named Walter George ran a mile in 4 minutes 12¾ seconds in front of a paying crowd in London. It took amateurs almost twenty-nine years to go faster, and sixty-eight before anyone went under four minutes. This timeline follows the mile record from George to the men and women chasing it today, one ratified time after another.
How it is laid out
Every reign is a band. Each record-holder’s band runs from the day of the record to the day it fell, so a long band is a record that stood: Nurmi’s eight years, Hägg’s almost nine, El Guerrouj’s twenty-seven. Where two rivals passed the record back and forth, one band holds the duel and the records sit inside it.
One evening in hours. On 6 May 1954 at Iffley Road, Oxford, the timeline zooms from years to seconds: the wind, the decision to run, each lap behind Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway, and 3:59.4.
The women’s mile runs alongside, from Diane Leather’s first run under five minutes in 1954, thirteen years before the IAAF would ratify a woman’s mile record.
Reading the times
Early records were timed by hand and written in fractions: George’s 4:12¾, Jones’s 4:14⅖. The IAAF rounded hand times up to the next fifth of a second until 1957 and to the next tenth after that, which is why Landy’s 3:57.9 is listed as 3:58.0. Since 1981 the record has been timed electrically, to the hundredth.
Threads to filter by
records: every ratified world record in the milebarriers: five minutes, four minutes, 3:50 and the restrivalries: Hägg and Andersson, Bannister and Landy, Coe and Ovettpacing: handicap runners, pacemakers and light railswomen,new zealand,africaandamateurism
The world seemed to stand still, or did not exist. — Roger Bannister on the last lap at Iffley Road, First Four Minutes, 1955
Times, dates and venues follow the IAAF’s Progression of World Records and World Athletics’ record lists for men and women.
Items
Walter George runs 4:12¾ at Lillie Bridge
The IAAF is founded in Stockholm
John Paul Jones runs 4:14.4, the first ratified mile record
Norman Taber runs 4:12.6 and finally beats George
Paavo Nurmi runs 4:10.4 in Stockholm
Jules Ladoumègue runs 4:09.2 in Paris
Jack Lovelock runs 4:07.6 at Princeton
Glenn Cunningham runs 4:06.8 at Princeton
Sydney Wooderson runs 4:06.4 at Motspur Park
Gunder Hägg runs 4:06.2 in Gothenburg
Arne Andersson equals the record in Stockholm
Hägg runs 4:04.6 in Stockholm
Andersson runs 4:02.6 in Gothenburg
Andersson runs 4:01.6 in Malmö
Hägg runs 4:01.4 in Malmö
Hägg and Andersson are banned as professionals
Bannister finishes fourth in the Helsinki 1500 metres
Bannister sharpens his spikes at St Mary’s
The flag on St John’s tower drops
Lap one: Brasher leads in 57.5
Half-mile in 1:58.2
Three-quarters in 3:00.5, Chataway in front
Roger Bannister runs 3:59.4, the first mile under four minutes
“The time was three…”
Diane Leather runs 4:59.6, the first woman under five minutes
John Landy runs 3:58.0 in Turku
The Miracle Mile in Vancouver
Derek Ibbotson runs 3:57.2 at White City
Herb Elliott runs 3:54.5 in Dublin
Peter Snell runs 3:54.4 on grass in Wanganui
Jim Ryun runs 3:59.0 as a schoolboy
Snell runs 3:54.1 in Auckland
Michel Jazy runs 3:53.6 in Rennes
Ryun runs 3:51.3 in Berkeley
Anne Smith runs 4:37.0, the first ratified women’s mile record
Ryun runs 3:51.1 in Bakersfield
Filbert Bayi runs 3:51.0 in Kingston
John Walker runs 3:49.4, the first mile under 3:50
Sebastian Coe runs 3:49.0 in Oslo
Steve Ovett runs 3:48.8 in Oslo
Coe runs 3:48.53 in Zürich
Ovett runs 3:48.40 in Koblenz
Coe runs 3:47.33 in Brussels
Steve Cram runs 3:46.32 in the Dream Mile
Paula Ivan runs 4:15.61 in Nice
Noureddine Morceli runs 3:44.39 in Rieti
Svetlana Masterkova runs 4:12.56 in Zürich
Hicham El Guerrouj runs 3:43.13 in Rome
Sifan Hassan runs 4:12.33 in Monaco
Faith Kipyegon runs 4:07.64 in Monaco
Jakob Ingebrigtsen runs 3:43.73 in Eugene
Breaking4: Kipyegon runs 4:06 in Paris
Josh Kerr runs 3:42.66 in London