The much vaunted and previously thought to be impossible 4 minute mile is an exceptional benchmark in the sport of running. It is a middle distance race of 1609.344 metres (1 mile). The goal for many rising athletes is to run 400m in 60 seconds; this involves doing that four times over.

On May 6, 1954, Englishman Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile in recorded history. John Walker managed to run at least 100 sub-four-minute miles during his career. The mile record as of 2002 is held by Hicham El Guerrouj, who set a time of 3 minutes 43.13 seconds in Rome in 1999.

See also

• World record progression for the mile run
• Athletics
• Middle distance track event