On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister, a 25-year-old British medical student, becomes the first person to run a sub four minute mile. Bannister’s time was 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Bannister retired from running to pursue his medical studies full-time and later became a consultant neurologist.

On 7 August, at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Bannister competed against John Landy for the first time in a race billed as “The Miracle Mile”. They were the only two men in the world to have broken the 4-minute barrier, with Landy still holding the world record. Landy looked over his left shoulder to gauge Bannister’s position and Bannister burst past him on the right; Bannister won in 3 min 58.8 s, with Landy 0.8 s behind in 3 min 59.6 s.

A larger-than-life bronze sculpture of the two men at this moment was created by Vancouver sculptor Jack Harman in 1967 from a photograph by Vancouver Sun photographer Charlie Warner and stood for many years at the entrance to Empire Stadium; after the stadium was demolished the sculpture was moved a short distance away to the Hastings and Renfrew entrance of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) fairgrounds.