![]() We learn twice of Bannister's disappointment at hearing that there would be an extra race at the Helsinki Olympics, when he had only trained for two. Occasionally, his scrupulous technique, tracing every detail back to an interview or a printed source, stops him from deciding between two versions of a story. Talent, training and ability may remain at the core of athletics - no amount of potions could help me run four laps of the track in less than 4 minutes - but ''The Perfect Mile'' returns the reader to a time when a sporting ideal was not an oxymoron.īascomb's approach, based on interviews with all the major figures, is to recreate the conversations and inner battles of the three men who made it their quest to break the mile barrier. ![]() The closest Bascomb's subjects get to using performance-enhancing substances is when Santee tapes ''a 4-inch square of Kramer's analgesic hot rub to the base of his spine'' 15 minutes before a race. Part of the appeal of Neal Bascomb's retelling of the story of the three men - Wes Santee, John Landy and Roger Bannister - who made a combined assault on this Everest of track and field is that it is a tale of innocence, and of honest endeavor. IN our own sporting age of vast salaries, commercial super-saturation and doping, the breaking of the 4-minute mile barrier 50 years ago, on May 6, 1954, looks an increasingly pristine, heroic achievement. Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It.
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