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Speaker 1: Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. This

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Speaker 1: is a special edition of Countdown commemorating May sixth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty four, the day Roger Banister became the first man

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Speaker 1: in the history of the world to run a mile

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Speaker 1: in four minutes or less. Allegedly, if you have already

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Speaker 1: heard the Friday edition of Countdown, you've already heard all

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Speaker 1: that follows this introduction, so I'll talk to you as

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Speaker 1: usual on Monday. I just felt it was right to

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Speaker 1: take out the news and present this extraordinary sports story

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Speaker 1: by itself, because Roger Banister was the first man ever

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Speaker 1: to run a four minute mile. The hell he was.

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Speaker 1: This is Sports Senate. Wait, check that not anymore.

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Speaker 2: This is Countdown with Keith Alberman in sports. This weekend

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Speaker 2: is the anniversary of one of the most famous events

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Speaker 2: in sports history, one of the most famous events in

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Speaker 2: twentieth century world history, and everything you know about it

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Speaker 2: is wrong. Starting at four minutes after six o'clock on

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Speaker 2: the evening of Thursday, May sixth, nineteen fifty four, continuing

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Speaker 2: until the day he died on March third, twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 2: not one day, not one day went by without somebody

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Speaker 2: congratulating Roger Banister on being the first human to run

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Speaker 2: a mile in four minutes or less, the man who

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Speaker 2: broke the four minute mile barrier. We cannot now comprehend

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Speaker 2: what a big deal this really was. Neil Armstrong, time,

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Speaker 2: Charles Lindbergh plus George Washington maybe. The next day, The

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Speaker 2: New York Times published ten different stories about Roger Banister

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Speaker 2: breaking the four minute mile barrier, plus an editorial. An

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Speaker 2: editorial on the editorial page that asked if anybody in

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Speaker 2: world history would ever do it again. Roger Gilbert Banister

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Speaker 2: began the Times on the front page, ran a mile

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Speaker 2: in three minutes fifty nine point four seconds, tonight to

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Speaker 2: reach one of man's hitherto unattainable goals. There's just one problem.

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Speaker 2: Not only was Roger Banister probably not the first man

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Speaker 2: to run a mile in less than four minutes, but

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Speaker 2: there is also a lot of evidence that that record

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Speaker 2: was broken in May of seventeen to seventy by a

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Speaker 2: guy who sold fruits and vegetables from a pushcart on

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Speaker 2: the streets of London, a guy named Parrot. Sixty nine

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Speaker 2: years later, and this is still the most famous run

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Speaker 2: in the history of the world. May sixth, nineteen fifty four,

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Speaker 2: on an ordinary spring evening at the Ifley Road Track

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Speaker 2: at Oxford University in England. Even as an unfavorable wind

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Speaker 2: worked against him, Roger Banister ran through the tape in

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Speaker 2: three point fifty nine to four and ran directly into

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Speaker 2: not just sports history, but human history, the four minute mile,

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Speaker 2: the first human ever to run that far that fast,

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Speaker 2: like the first man on the moon, no matter how

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Speaker 2: much farther we go. But glory is his, indefinitely, forever,

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Speaker 2: always eternal, immortal Neil Armstrong, But in shorts or there

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Speaker 2: had already been a four minute mile run in seventeen

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Speaker 2: seventy and Banister has no more claim to immortality than

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Speaker 2: do you or I. And this is really a story

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Speaker 2: about bureaucracy supporting bureaucracy and what the experts call recency

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Speaker 2: bias and a lot of racism. And the story should

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Speaker 2: be about a guy who used to sell fruits and

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Speaker 2: vegetables on the streets of London and who ran in

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Speaker 2: his spare time for money in the decade before the

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Speaker 2: American Revolution. And his name was Parrot, as in look, maby,

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Speaker 2: I know a dead parrot when I see one, And

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Speaker 2: I'm looking at one right now.

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Speaker 1: We begin in the pages of a British book dated

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Speaker 1: from seventeen ninety four, which seems to be for you

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Speaker 1: back to the future fans, a kind of Gray's Sports Almanac.

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Speaker 1: The seventeen ninety four tome bears an amazingly modern title

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Speaker 1: The Sports Magazine, and its chronology of top sports events

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Speaker 1: of recent years past includes for the year seventeen seventy

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Speaker 1: this quote seventeen seventy May ninth, James Parrott, a costermonger.

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Speaker 1: A costermonger sold fruits and vegetables from a pushcart on street.

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Speaker 1: James Parrott, a costuremonger, ran the length of Old Street viz.

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Speaker 1: From the Charterhouse wall in Goswell Street to Shoreditch Church Gates,

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Speaker 1: which is a measured mile, in four minutes. Fifteen guineas

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Speaker 1: to five were betted he did not run the ground

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Speaker 1: in four minutes and a half. So that's it. I

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Speaker 1: am besmirching the immortality of Saint Roger Banister and everything

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Speaker 1: you will see in the newspapers about him over the

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Speaker 1: weekend because of fifty one words about some guy racing

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Speaker 1: against an eighteenth century watch in the year seventeen seventy,

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Speaker 1: and the story wasn't even published until twenty four years later. Seriously, seriously,

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Speaker 1: there is nothing else to say about James Parrott. That

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Speaker 1: snippet from that book is all that researchers have ever

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Speaker 1: found or found out about James Parrott. No obituary, no nothing,

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Speaker 1: no four minute mile, no confirmation he ever existed. Besides which,

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Speaker 1: as every modern sports fan will tell you, the athletes

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Speaker 1: of today are the great greater, greatest of all time goats.

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Speaker 1: If the record book says nobody ran a four minute

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Speaker 1: mile until nineteen fifty four, of course the record books

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Speaker 1: are right. Since seventeen seventy, humans have evolved, health has evolved,

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Speaker 1: training has evolved. Why in seventeen seventy you couldn't even

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Speaker 1: accurately measure a mile, let alone measure exactly four minutes. Actually,

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Speaker 1: agricultural chains, designed to resolve who owned what property and

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Speaker 1: where international borders were had been introduced in sixteen twenty

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Speaker 1: and have proved to be, at worst, only off by

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Speaker 1: around two fifths of an inch over a mile. And

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Speaker 1: if you're saying acra cultural chains, you don't use agricultural

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Speaker 1: chains in sports, let me ask you this, what do

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Speaker 1: they use in National Football League games to check whether

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Speaker 1: or not it's a first down. Okay, we're giving them

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Speaker 1: the accuracy of the agricultural change we still use today

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Speaker 1: in our pro sports. You could measure several blocks of

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Speaker 1: London in seventeen seventy and say from way back there

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Speaker 1: to right over here in front of the church, that

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Speaker 1: is exactly a mile, Guvnor. But how would you time

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Speaker 1: it four minutes? Exactly? What did they use? A really

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Speaker 1: good sundial? No, that has been called a chronometer. The

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Speaker 1: chronometer was perfected by seventeen sixty one. You may know

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Speaker 1: the chronometer as a Swiss watch, or as you might

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Speaker 1: also know it, a rolex. So this parrot runs a mile,

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Speaker 1: or maybe he runs a mile plus two fifths of

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Speaker 1: an inch, and he is timed by several guys with rolllexes,

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Speaker 1: and they all have the same score. He did it

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Speaker 1: in exactly four minutes. If you're still not convinced, if

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Speaker 1: you're still googling Roger Banister's descendants so they can sue

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Speaker 1: this idiot Lderman in his podcast, let me emphasize the

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Speaker 1: part that convinced me that a man named Parrot did

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Speaker 1: run a four minute mile two months and four days

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Speaker 1: after the Boston massacre unleashed the events that would culminate

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Speaker 1: in the American Revolution. Permit me to reread that last

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Speaker 1: sentence about James Parrot's run from Gray's Sports Almanac, I'm sorry,

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Speaker 1: from the Sporting magazine of seventeen ninety four. Quote, fifteen

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Speaker 1: guineas to five were betted. He did not run the

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Speaker 1: ground in four minutes and a half. This guy Parrot

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Speaker 1: bet on himself and got three to one odds, and

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Speaker 1: the five guineas wagered here that would be worth about

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Speaker 1: fifty five hundred dollars in today's money, Meaning this was

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Speaker 1: no eighteenth cent Roger Banister hoping to break a record

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Speaker 1: for Queen and country. This was a guy who did

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Speaker 1: this for money, for the equivalent in winnings of about

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Speaker 1: seventeen thousand dollars, at least as much as his annual

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Speaker 1: income might have been selling fruits and vegetables from a cart.

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Speaker 1: And the way it's phrased in that magazine, we don't know.

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Speaker 1: If more than one bet of fifteen guineas to five

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Speaker 1: was placed, he might have won thirty four thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: or fifty one thousand dollars or five hundred and ten

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Because this was for money, the loser or

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Speaker 1: losers who bet he could not finish the race in

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Speaker 1: four and a half minutes had to be satisfied that

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Speaker 1: he had done it in less than four and a half,

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Speaker 1: in this case, in four As we know from our

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Speaker 1: own times, losers now like to claim they didn't lose

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Speaker 1: and will go to any length to convince others they

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Speaker 1: did not lose. But James Parrott got his money, which

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Speaker 1: means that the loser or losers believed James Parrott really

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Speaker 1: rased a mile and did it in four minutes. I'm

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Speaker 1: sold antiquated books and four minute miles run one hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty three years before the first four minute mile,

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Speaker 1: and costermongers and agricultural change. They may come and go

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Speaker 1: and may be trustworthy or untrustworthy, but money is money,

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Speaker 1: and James Parrott was given the equivalent of his annual

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Speaker 1: salary at least once because somebody who thought he could

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Speaker 1: not do it agreed, Yeah, I was wrong. He really, really,

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Speaker 1: really really did just run the mile in four minutes. Now,

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Speaker 1: of course, the whole account in the book could be wrong.

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Speaker 1: I'm old enough that I was actually on the air

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Speaker 1: doing sportscast on the radio network of United Press International

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Speaker 1: on April twenty first, nineteen eighty when Rosie Ruiz quote

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Speaker 1: one unquote the Boston Marathon. Then it turned out two

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Speaker 1: people had seen Rosy Ruiz burst out of the crowd

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Speaker 1: of spectators on Commonwealth Avenue and start running alongside the

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Speaker 1: men runners. And then it turned out that while she

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Speaker 1: was supposedly completing the nineteen seventy nine New York Marathon,

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Speaker 1: she had struck up a conversation with a freelance photographer

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Speaker 1: on the subway, and the two of them went to

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Speaker 1: the finish line together, and Rosie Ruiz then told officials

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Speaker 1: she had just finished the race. And Rosie Ruiz was

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Speaker 1: a total fraud in two different marathons. Maybe the seventeen

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Speaker 1: seventy four minute mile of James Parrott was just inaccurate.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it was just an inside joke or a misheard

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Speaker 1: rumor or a typo, or he took the subway with

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Speaker 1: Rosie Ruiz, or it was a joke by whoever wrote

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Speaker 1: the book. I've told you the story before about the

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Speaker 1: nineteen twelve Saint Louis Brown's second baseman named Proctor, and

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Speaker 1: nobody could find anything about him. And then it turned

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Speaker 1: out Procter was the Western Union operator who used to

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Speaker 1: make up all the official scorecards at for each game,

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Speaker 1: and one day he decided he always wanted to be

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Speaker 1: a Major League ballplayer, so he put himself in the scorecard.

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Speaker 1: Maybe James Parrott was the author of this the sports

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Speaker 1: magazine or his four minute miles and Monty Python jokes go.

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Speaker 1: Now that's what I call a dead parrot. So if

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Speaker 1: it's a mistake, if it's a typo, if it's his

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Speaker 1: hype job, if it's Rosie Ruiz, if it's low Proctor,

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Speaker 1: Roger Banister is safe. Now he's not because there was

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Speaker 1: also a runner named Powell, and Powell in seventeen eighty

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Speaker 1: seven said he could run a mile in four minutes,

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Speaker 1: and he wasn't messing around. He bet a thousand guineas

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Speaker 1: that he could do it one point one million dollars

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Speaker 1: in today's money. And not only that, but he ran

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Speaker 1: on a famous English running track near Hampton Court, and

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Speaker 1: five days before Christmas of seventeen eighty seven he ran

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Speaker 1: a time trial so that the gamblers could all come

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Speaker 1: over and see what shape he was in, and whether

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Speaker 1: they should bet for him or bet against him. And

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Speaker 1: he did it in the time trial in four minutes

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Speaker 1: and three seconds. And when Powell said the betters could

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Speaker 1: see what shape he was in, he really meant it.

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Speaker 1: He was dedicated to his cause five days before Christmas,

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Speaker 1: and this guy ran a mile naked. All that was

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Speaker 1: in the papers. What happened to the actual race, We

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Speaker 1: don't know that. Nobody has ever found that newspaper. Nobody's

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Speaker 1: ever found an account of the race, only the time trial.

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Speaker 1: So we have to go under the assumption that Powell

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Speaker 1: never did better than four to three. But once again,

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Speaker 1: Roger Banister's four minute mile has withstood the test of time.

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Speaker 1: Uh kinda bah, No, Actually it hasn't. There's also another

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Speaker 1: guy named Weller. Weller was famous enough as a professional

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Speaker 1: runner of the time that when he said he could

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Speaker 1: run a mile on the Banbury Road in Oxford, the

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Speaker 1: newspapers of the day all showed up to preview it,

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Speaker 1: to talk about his two brothers, who were also professional runners,

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Speaker 1: and to cover his attempt on October tenth, seventeen ninety six.

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Speaker 1: And there it is in the papers. Weller of Oxford

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Speaker 1: runs a mile in three minutes fifty eight seconds, not

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Speaker 1: only one hundred and fifty eight years before Roger Banister,

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Speaker 1: but a second and a half faster than Roger Banister.

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Speaker 1: So here's the thing. If somebody really ran a mile

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Speaker 1: in three fifty nine or three fifty eight at the

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Speaker 1: time of the American Revolution, wouldn't that stand out as

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Speaker 1: such an impossible performance, then, such an anomaly so startling

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Speaker 1: that it would be viewed in the same way we

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Speaker 1: would view news coming up on Monday that somebody now

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Speaker 1: had just run the mile in three minutes flat. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if somebody ran the mile in three minutes flat, we

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Speaker 1: would check to see if the guy was a space

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Speaker 1: alien or a time traveler. Wouldn't they have been amazed

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Speaker 1: on October tenth, seventeen ninety six, disbelieving what they had heard,

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Speaker 1: not at all? And that's the second half of the

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Speaker 1: story of the day. Roger Banister did not break the

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Speaker 1: four minute barrier. Research and computers and simulations show that

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Speaker 1: people in the seventeen eighties were consistently running the mile

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Speaker 1: in four minutes and eighteen seconds, four minutes and twenty seconds,

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Speaker 1: four minutes and fifteen seconds. If the info about Weller

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Speaker 1: is right, three minutes and fifty eight seconds. All the time,

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Speaker 1: these numbers were being put up by all kinds of runners,

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Speaker 1: So a four minute mile would have been great, but

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Speaker 1: not out of context, not in seventeen ninety six. And

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Speaker 1: then you have to ask, if it happened, where are

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Speaker 1: all those records. Who were all those four minute eighteen

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Speaker 1: guys and four minute three second guys and three fifty

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Speaker 1: eight guys. What happened to the records? Well, see, that's

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Speaker 1: another scandal. Those eighteenth century records were erased in the

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Speaker 1: nineteenth century because richer, slower people in the nineteenth century

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Speaker 1: wanted to say they held the records, they erased the

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Speaker 1: record book. That part of the story, and the additional

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Speaker 1: sad truth that much of the claims about Roger Banister

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Speaker 1: are really really racist. Next we know Roger Banister really

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Speaker 1: did run a three minute and fifty nine second mile

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Speaker 1: on May sixth, nineteen fifty four in England. It was

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Speaker 1: timed and announced to a waiting crowd by no less

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Speaker 1: a figure than Norris mcwerder, who was later the founder

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Speaker 1: or co founder of the Guinness Book of World Records.

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Speaker 1: And everybody who was there saw history and was part

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Speaker 1: of an impossible dream coming true. And as I mentioned earlier,

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Speaker 1: the next day the New York Times actually had an

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Speaker 1: editorial asking whether or not anybody ever do it again?

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Speaker 1: There is considerable evidence, as I've laid out here, that

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Speaker 1: it was done before, like two hundred years before. But

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Speaker 1: if you are still not convinced that no, no matter

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Speaker 1: what else it was, Roger Banister's three minute fifty nine

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Speaker 1: point four second mile on May sixth, nineteen fifty four

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Speaker 1: was not the first four minute mile. If James Parrott

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Speaker 1: and the naked runner Powell of Hampton Court and Weller

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Speaker 1: seventeen ninety six don't convince you there is also this.

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Speaker 1: There is a sports historian named Peter Radford, himself the

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Speaker 1: bronze medalist in two sprints at the nineteen sixty Olympics

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Speaker 1: in Rome, and he brought the story of Parrot and

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Speaker 1: Powell and Weller to the forefront in the British press

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Speaker 1: nearly twenty years ago. This man found them because he

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Speaker 1: was looking for and finding the records of more than

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Speaker 1: six hundred running races in the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

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Speaker 1: Running against the clock, against each other, usually for money,

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Speaker 1: was not only the most popular professional sport in Britain

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Speaker 1: at that time. It was also probably the first, and

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Speaker 1: with so many races and especially winning and losing times recorded,

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Speaker 1: Peter Radford had data to work with. When guys didn't

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Speaker 1: run a four minute mile, how fast did they run it?

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Speaker 1: How fast were these professionals going the average ones over

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Speaker 1: other distances in say seventeen eighty nine, what was the

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Speaker 1: range of times? And his computer looked at all of

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Speaker 1: these races six hundred or so and all of the

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Speaker 1: times and all of the speeds, and it spit out

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Speaker 1: this conclusion. Factoring in the margin of error, Radford wrote,

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Speaker 1: the best possible one mile time would be anywhere between

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Speaker 1: four minutes, thirteen seconds and exactly four minutes. So no,

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Speaker 1: you cannot say James Parrott ran the first four minute

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Speaker 1: mile in seventeen seventy and Weller ran the first sub

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Speaker 1: four minute mile in seventeen ninety six, not with certainty,

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Speaker 1: but I think you can say with certainty that somebody

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Speaker 1: did it before the year eighteen hundred, and that when

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Speaker 1: Roger Banister crashed through the tape at Oxford at six

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Speaker 1: oh four Greenwich meantime on the evening of Thursday May

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Speaker 1: sixth nineteen fifty four, and the track announcer Norris McWhorter

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Speaker 1: announced that Roger Banister's time in the mile was and

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Speaker 1: he gave it a desperately long pause. By all accounts,

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Speaker 1: three minutes fifty I an unfall ten seconds. The moment

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Speaker 1: that happened, Roger Banister became at best the second man

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Speaker 1: to run a mile in four minutes or less, but

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Speaker 1: more likely he was like the twenty second or the

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Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty second. So why why didn't anybody

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Speaker 1: know this? Why did Roger Banister live a life of unceasing,

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Speaker 1: undiminished and sorry, undeserved fame. And that guy Weller We

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Speaker 1: may have run the race a second faster and one

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty eight years earlier. Why don't we even

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Speaker 1: know Weller's first name? All sports are based on history.

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Speaker 1: Records are made to be broken. The older the record,

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Speaker 1: the louder the break. Who screwed this up? How did

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00:20:22,995 --> 00:20:26,155
Speaker 1: we lose Weller in the nooks and crannies of history.

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Speaker 1: We didn't lose them. It wasn't an error. It was deliberate.

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Speaker 1: And that's where this gets to be a crime. Our

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Speaker 1: historian and ex Olympic runner, mister Radford quoted another ancient book,

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Speaker 1: British Rural Sports by J. H. Walsh, which was published

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Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty eight, and in it all the dozens

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Speaker 1: of speed and distant events had two sets of records,

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Speaker 1: one for professionals like Parrot and Powell and Weller, the

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Speaker 1: ones who ran for money, the ones on whom people bet,

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Speaker 1: the ones who bet on themselves. There was that set

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Speaker 1: of records, and then another set of records which was

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Speaker 1: given far more weight and far more importance for the amateurs.

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Speaker 1: By the early twentieth century, Radford wrote, the professional records

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Speaker 1: had been erased from these books, expunged, not forgotten, removed.

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Speaker 1: Why because the professionals were far better than the amateurs.

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Speaker 1: No amateur held the record in the mile. It was

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Speaker 1: all professionals, but the amateurs were in charge. They were

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Speaker 1: the British upper class. They raced not for money but

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Speaker 1: for sport. So the amateurs simply did what the upper

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Speaker 1: class always does in this situation. They erased the records

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Speaker 1: of all the professionals. And oh, by the way, they

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Speaker 1: also erased all records set by women. The British obsession

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Speaker 1: with the superiority of the amateur over the professional If

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Speaker 1: you've ever seen the movie Chariots of Fire, you already

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Speaker 1: know exactly what I mean. It spread throughout the world

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Speaker 1: through the Olympics. That's why Jim Thorpe lost all his

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Speaker 1: gold medals from the nineteen twelve Games. Why the greatest

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Speaker 1: all around athlete ever died in poverty because he had

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Speaker 1: once played minor league baseball to make some money in

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Speaker 1: the summer, and everybody knew about it, and nobody thought

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Speaker 1: they'd hold it against it, but then they held it

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Speaker 1: against him. He was a professional, so his records did

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Speaker 1: not count like James Parrott or fill in the blank here,

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Speaker 1: Powell or I don't remember his first name Weller. So

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Speaker 1: the world record in the mile as of the year

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Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one was credited to a man, an amateur

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Speaker 1: named Matthew Green. Matthew Green was the fastest man in

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Speaker 1: human history four minutes and forty six seconds. Four minutes

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Speaker 1: and forty six seconds. In my twenties, I might have

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Speaker 1: come close to that number. By nineteen thirteen, the International

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00:23:01,355 --> 00:23:04,995
Speaker 1: Amateur Athletics Federation had taken over and it recognized runner

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Speaker 1: from Cornell, not me, a different runner from Cornell, as

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Speaker 1: the all time outdoor record holder in the mile four

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Speaker 1: minutes and thirteen seconds, John Paul Jones, one hundred and

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Speaker 1: forty three years after James Parrot, The indoor record in

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Speaker 1: the mile was then held by a man named Abel

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Speaker 1: Kiviat four eighteen and two. I met Abel Kiviat. I

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Speaker 1: interviewed him when he was ninety. I wish I had

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Speaker 1: known about James Parrott. Then I didn't. Abel, and I

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00:23:34,315 --> 00:23:37,275
Speaker 1: talked about his roommate at the nineteen twelve Olympics. Jim

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Speaker 1: Thorpe got to tell you that story sometime too, But

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00:23:40,595 --> 00:23:42,755
Speaker 1: boy Able Kiviat and I could have had a conversation

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Speaker 1: about amateurs versus professionals, and whether or not his record

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Speaker 1: was actually a record. Anyway, you can see where this

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00:23:49,755 --> 00:23:52,435
Speaker 1: is all going, and we are almost at our proverbial

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Speaker 1: finish line. I'll conclude the Roger Banister story after this.

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Speaker 1: Not only did history forget the great athletes of the

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Speaker 1: eighteenth and nineteenth centuries like Parrot and Powell and Weller,

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Speaker 1: who if they did not break the four minute mile,

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Speaker 1: they came damn close and did a lot better than

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Speaker 1: my friend Abel Kiviat did or my Cornell guy John

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00:24:13,795 --> 00:24:16,515
Speaker 1: Paul Jones to say another of Matthew Green four minutes

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Speaker 1: and forty six seconds, What did you do stop for lunch?

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Speaker 1: Not only were the remarkable athletes like Parrot and Powell

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Speaker 1: and Weller forgotten, they were buried deliberately. It makes the

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00:24:32,075 --> 00:24:36,075
Speaker 1: subject of the Roger Banister four minute mile that everybody

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Speaker 1: celebrates with almost undiminished astonishment every year at this time.

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Speaker 1: It makes all this a little less trivial and a

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Speaker 1: little bit more nefarious and wrong and ugly. Speaking of

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Speaker 1: Ugly and Banister, there is one other component to this story.

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Speaker 1: In the nineteen nineties, having been the god of the

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Speaker 1: four minute mile for four decades, having been celebrated every

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Speaker 1: day for breaking a record that was probably broken one

379
00:25:05,435 --> 00:25:08,795
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty three years before, Roger Banister was asked

380
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Speaker 1: about the new generation of runners, those of African descent

381
00:25:14,275 --> 00:25:20,395
Speaker 1: on September twelfth, nineteen ninety five, Sir Roger Banister explained, quote,

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Speaker 1: it's certainly obvious when you see an all black sprint

383
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Speaker 1: final that there must be something rather special about their

384
00:25:25,835 --> 00:25:30,595
Speaker 1: anatomy or physiology which produces these outstanding successes. And indeed

385
00:25:30,595 --> 00:25:33,315
Speaker 1: there may be, but we don't know quite what it is.

386
00:25:34,315 --> 00:25:36,715
Speaker 1: Some countries have the good fortune to have a high

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00:25:36,715 --> 00:25:44,155
Speaker 1: proportion of black sprinters and hurdlers end quote. Nineteen years later,

388
00:25:44,275 --> 00:25:47,955
Speaker 1: Banister was still driving right into the Eugenics lane, sounding

389
00:25:48,115 --> 00:25:51,915
Speaker 1: just enough like Jimmy the Greek Snyder to make you squirm.

390
00:25:52,235 --> 00:25:56,035
Speaker 1: I love watching people like Usain Bolt, Banister said. The

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Speaker 1: West Africans, of course, have an inbuilt advantage, having been

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Speaker 1: transported as slaves to the West Indies, only the toughest endured.

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Speaker 1: They have astonishing muscle composition, with those fast fibers and

394
00:26:08,515 --> 00:26:14,515
Speaker 1: superior genes. I will leave it to you and to

395
00:26:14,595 --> 00:26:18,435
Speaker 1: his maker an assessment of how much of Roger Banister

396
00:26:18,595 --> 00:26:21,795
Speaker 1: was patronizing, how much was him trying to rationalize how

397
00:26:21,835 --> 00:26:26,075
Speaker 1: his time had been bettered by nearly ten percent, and

398
00:26:26,155 --> 00:26:29,235
Speaker 1: how much of it was just sheer racism. But I

399
00:26:29,275 --> 00:26:31,995
Speaker 1: will note that in what Banister said is another reason

400
00:26:32,035 --> 00:26:35,235
Speaker 1: to believe that the idea that he was the first

401
00:26:35,435 --> 00:26:39,235
Speaker 1: human to run a four minute mile is laugh out

402
00:26:39,355 --> 00:26:45,395
Speaker 1: loud ridiculous. What about all of the runners of color

403
00:26:46,115 --> 00:26:51,555
Speaker 1: over the centuries, over the millennia in Africa and South

404
00:26:51,595 --> 00:26:57,035
Speaker 1: America and elsewhere on this globe. By Banister's own disturbing logic.

405
00:26:57,155 --> 00:27:01,875
Speaker 1: Certainly some of them must have beaten him to breaking

406
00:27:01,915 --> 00:27:08,315
Speaker 1: the four minute tape. Oh, let me close with this.

407
00:27:08,715 --> 00:27:12,035
Speaker 1: I don't know for certain who ran the first four

408
00:27:12,075 --> 00:27:15,155
Speaker 1: minute mile or when. For all we know, it was

409
00:27:15,195 --> 00:27:18,595
Speaker 1: broken two thousand years ago, and for that matter, so

410
00:27:18,755 --> 00:27:20,915
Speaker 1: was the present world record of three point forty three

411
00:27:20,955 --> 00:27:23,595
Speaker 1: point thirteen. Might have been James Parrott or Powell or

412
00:27:23,635 --> 00:27:26,475
Speaker 1: Weller whose first names we don't know, or someone so

413
00:27:26,715 --> 00:27:28,835
Speaker 1: lost to history that we don't know their first name

414
00:27:29,035 --> 00:27:32,435
Speaker 1: or their last name, or their country. We don't know

415
00:27:32,515 --> 00:27:36,155
Speaker 1: who it was. But no matter what you hear, or

416
00:27:36,275 --> 00:27:40,035
Speaker 1: see or read in this Weekend Ahead, it's sure as

417
00:27:40,075 --> 00:27:46,155
Speaker 1: hell was not Roger Banister, which brings us lastly to

418
00:27:46,355 --> 00:27:51,635
Speaker 1: missus Roger Banister, Moira Elva Jacobson Banister, daughter of a

419
00:27:51,635 --> 00:27:56,155
Speaker 1: Swedish economist. According to Roger Banister, his wife didn't know

420
00:27:56,195 --> 00:27:58,675
Speaker 1: a lick about sports, let alone about running, let alone

421
00:27:58,675 --> 00:28:05,555
Speaker 1: about him running for a time. Roger Bannon once said,

422
00:28:05,995 --> 00:28:11,195
Speaker 1: my wife thought I had run four miles in one minute.

423
00:28:15,435 --> 00:28:17,595
Speaker 1: You know, as I've been thinking about this and researching

424
00:28:17,595 --> 00:28:21,075
Speaker 1: that story, you might as well go with that four

425
00:28:21,115 --> 00:28:24,875
Speaker 1: miles in one minute. It's no more ridiculous than thinking

426
00:28:24,955 --> 00:28:27,915
Speaker 1: that Roger Banister was the first man to run one

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Speaker 1: mile in four minutes. Bottom line, Roger Banister did an

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Speaker 1: impressive thing on May sixth, nineteen fifty four. He did

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Speaker 1: not break any barriers nor set any records. And why

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Speaker 1: we celebrate this every year? I do not know. I've

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Speaker 1: done all the damage I can do. Here Here are

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Speaker 1: the credits. Most of the music was arranged, produced and

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Speaker 1: performed by Brian Ray and John Phillip Schenel, who are

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Speaker 1: the Countdown musical directors. All orchestra and keyboards by John

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Speaker 1: Phillips Shaneil Guitars, bass and drums by Brian Ray, produced

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Speaker 1: by Tko Brothers. Other Beethoven selections have been arranged and

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Speaker 1: performed by No Horns Allowed. The sports music is the

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Speaker 1: Olberman theme from ESPN two and it is written by

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Speaker 1: Mitch Warren Davis courtesy of ESPN Inc. Musical comments by

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Speaker 1: Nancy Faust. The best baseball stadium organist ever and our

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Speaker 1: announcer today was Roger Vanister. No, it's Jonathan Banks from

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Speaker 1: Breaking Bad. Everything else is pretty much my fault except

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Speaker 1: the stuff about Banister. That's countdown for this The eight

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Speaker 1: hundred and fiftieth day since Donald Trump's first attempted coup

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Speaker 1: against the democratically elected government of the United States. Do

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Speaker 1: not forget to keep arresting him while we still can.

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Speaker 1: The next scheduled countdown is Monday. Till then, I'm Keith Olberman.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck. Countdown

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Speaker 1: with Keith Olderman is a production of iHeartRadio. For more

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Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.