The running shoes worn by Roger Bannister when he broke the 4-minute mile in 1954 were sold at auction on Thursday for $409,344, according to Christie’s auction house.
Christie’s expected the shoes to fetch between $47,000 and $78,000. The shoes were were sold to an anonymous bidder.
Bannister became the first runner to break the fabled 4-minute barrier when he achieved 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds on May 6, 1954, at the Iffley Road Track in Oxford.
Bannister, who was knighted in 1975, is now 86 and lives in Oxford with his wife, Moyra. He is coping with the effects of Parkinson’s. Bannister plans to donate part of the proceeds from the auction to the Autonomic Charitable Trust, which encourages neurological research. He devoted most of his medical career to the study of neurological conditions.
