![]() ![]() Why? Because there is no barrier to running 3:43 or 42 or 41 in the 1,500m. The logic goes then, that if the barrier with the mile was a psychological one, then the 1,500m times should have improved at a faster rate. Even in the 1940’s and 50’s most countries ran the 1,500m, with the exception being the ones who still used imperial measurements. The 1,500m is the more commonly run Olympic version of the mile. Well, one way to find out is to look at the mile’s close cousin, the 1,500m. I mean, we’ve been told that doctors said it was impossible and a runner’s heart would explode! It HAD to be a barrier. I know, you get it, everyone was improving during this time frame, but there still had to be some sort of barrier surrounding the 4-minute mile, right? It’s too big of a mental barrier not to. Something changed in the sport, not the psychology. In every case during this time period, you see the same pattern, stagnation during the war years followed by massive improvements in the 1950’s. By 1958, we were all the way down to 2:15. ![]() What about the marathon you might ask? Stuck at 2:25 from 1947 until 1952, when it was dropped to 2:20 by Jim Peters. By the time 1956 rolled around, they’d cut a full minute off the record with Vladimir Kuts running 28:30.4! Five years later, Emil Zatopek broke it running 29:28.2. Viljo Heino set the world record in 1944 at 29:35.4. Not surprisingly, the same thing happened in the 10k. Stagnation and breakthrough were the name of the game. Here we didn’t see the deluge of performers sub 1:45.7 like in the other cases, but by 1962, Peter Snell lopped another 1.4 seconds off the mark to run 1:44.3. That record stood for 16 years until Roger Moens dropped it to 1:45.7 in 1955. Look at the men’s 800m, where the world record was set in 1939 at 1:46.6, and you see the same pattern. Take a look at the record progression:Īfter stagnating for 13 years, the 5k record improved an astonishing 20 seconds in the next two years! Look familiar? That’s about the rate of progression we saw in the mile world record during the same time frame.īut it’s not just the mile and 5k. No one thought, hmm Hagg just became the first man to run under 14-minutes, so we all can!īut it gets even more interesting, when we look at what happened in the years after Zatopek. Hagg crushed a barrier (the 14-minute one) and instead of seeing the floodgates opened, we had stagnation. Here’s the perfect counter example to the barrier breaking idea. In the 5k, the world record, set by Hagg, sat at 13:58.2 for 12 years, until Emil Zatopek came along in 1954 to run 13:57.2. This should not occur if the reason for the stop and start was the mental barrier of breaking four. Look at the other mid and long distance events and you see the exact same pattern: stagnation and progression. You don’t have to take agree with my conclusions based on my story telling ability. At the ripe age of 27, less than a year after he ran 4:01.4, Hagg’s career was finished. So not only were we hurt athletically during the war, but also during the post war era.Īdditionally, while Hagg and Anderson were taking their shots, in 1946, they were banned from competing as they were labeled professionals for taking money, which was against the amateur rules of the day. For a popularized example, see Unbroken hero Louis Zamperini. Not only that, but we lost scores of top talent to deaths and injuries during the war. You see, during the war years, the Swedes (Anderson and Hagg) had the freedom to continue their athletic careers, chasing records, while the rest of the world, for the most part, was put on hold. The obvious answer is, it was 1945 and we had just completed that little thing called World War 2. And there it stayed until Bannister broke it 9 years later. In the early 1940’s Arne Anderson and Gunder Hagg traded the mile world record getting it down to 4:01.4 in 1945. ![]() The progression of the World Records during the 1940’s and 50’s is a unique mix of history getting in the way of athletics natural progression. ![]() But is it true, did Bannister usher in a new era? It makes for a compelling narrative, one that is thrown around at success seminars left and right, meant to inspire you to let go of your psychological barriers. Herb Elliott dropped the record down to 3:54.5 within 4 years! Surely, a psychological breakthrough was the key! I mean he broke a world record that was on the books for 9 years! And after he broke it, the mile was taken to another level. ![]()
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