Commentary
The mile, the myth and the men who made it
Back in May 2010, on the eve of the anniversary of Roger Bannister’s first sub-four-minute mile, I wrote what I thought was a mildly irreverent blog post. I didn’t understand the fuss. Why, I wondered, did athletics treat a 3:59 mile as though it bestowed some kind of sporting immortality, while equivalent – and sometimes […]
When race becomes the achievement
When Christophe Lemaître became the first white man to legally break 10 seconds for 100m in 2010, I was fascinated by it. It was unusual. It was historically noteworthy. Inevitably, it became the story. But even at the time, I remember thinking: hopefully this is where that story ends.