born March 23, 1929, Harrow, Middlesex, Eng.
British runner.
He attended the University of Oxford before earning a medical degree. In 1954 he became the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes (3 minutes 59.4 seconds). Many authorities had previously regarded the four-minute mile "barrier" as unbreakable. A neurologist, he wrote papers on the physiology of exercise, and he is said to have achieved his speed through scientific training methods.