DASHBOARD LINK
STORYBOARD LINK
https://public.tableau.com/views/PersonalBestsofSubFourMinuteMilersSTORYBOARD/Story1?:language=en-US&publish=yes&:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link
The sub four minute mile is considered the Mount Everest of middle distance running. Sir Roger Bannister was the first man to break the four minute barrier, running a time of 3:59.4 on May 6th, 1954. The world record currently sits at 3:43.13, set by Morrocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj. For context that’s 16.134 miles per hour or 13.86 seconds per 100 meters.
The data for this dashboard was taken from the World Athletics website. It includes all men that have run below four minutes for the mile.
When looking at the age of a sub four minute miler, we see a distribution centered at 23-24 years with a longer tail out towards the late twenties and early thirties.
The Mile is often called America’s Distance. When you look at the bubble chart in the top right, the data supports that claim. 433 sub four minute milers are from the United States. Second to the United States is Great Britain with 202 runners under four minutes. Kenya is third with 126 runners at four minutes and below.
Our bottom chart shows the number of personal records below four minutes achieved each year from 1954 to 2022. One interesting point is the year 2021 where we see 81 runners achieved a personal best below four minutes. Nike, the sports apparel company, would probably like you to believe that this was due to the release of the Nike Zoom Victory 4, dubbed, “The Super Spike”. It’s a shoe with a carbon fiber plate that is intended to make a runner more economical. The other, more likely reason behind this spike, is that the year prior was 2020, which is the year the COVID-19 pandemic forced shut downs and cancellations of track meets all over the world. Without an opportunity to run a personal record in 2020, it is likely that many runners had to wait until 2021 to run their personal best below four minutes.
Included within the story board is a histogram of the locations with the most sub four minute miles run. As far as cities, London is the top location to run fast. Regarding stadiums, Bislett Stadium has more sub four minute personal records than any other venue.
Overall, key takeaways from the dashboard is that most sub four minute milers run a personal best around their mid 20’s, are predominantly from the United States, and that the year 2021 saw a marked increase in runners achieving a personal best. It will be very exciting to see what the rest of 2022 has in store for the mile, and if that trend from 2021 will continue.