In The Perfect Mile, Neal Bascomb, the New York Times bestselling
author of Faster, presenst the riveting, true story of the three
world-class athletes who individually became the first runners to break
the four-minute mile.
There was a time when running the mile in four minutes was believed to
be beyond the limits of human foot speed, and in all of sport it was the
elusive holy grail. In 1952, after suffering defeat at the Helsinki
Olympics, three world-class runners each set out to break this
barrier.
Roger Bannister was a young English medical student who epitomized the
ideal of the amateur -- still driven not just by winning but by the
nobility of the pursuit. John Landy was the privileged son of a genteel
Australian family, who as a boy preferred butterfly collecting to
running but who trained relentlessly in an almost spiritual attempt to
shape his body to this singular task. Then there was Wes Santee, the
swaggering American, a Kansas farm boy and natural athlete who believed
he was just plain better than everybody else.
Spanning three continents and defying the odds, their collective quest
captivated the world and stole headlines from the Korean War, the atomic
race, and such legendary figures as Edmund Hillary, Willie Mays, Native
Dancer, and Ben Hogan. In the tradition of Seabiscuit and Chariots of
Fire, Neal Bascomb delivers a breathtaking story of unlikely heroes and
leaves us with a lasting portrait of the twilight years of the golden
age of sport.
