Sir Roger Bannister, 1st to run mile in under 4 minutes, dies aged 88

Sir Roger Bannister, the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, died Saturday. He was 88.

In a statement, Bannister's family said he died "peacefully" in Oxford, the same city where, in 1954, Bannister accomplished a feat many had thought impossible when he clocked a time of 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds at the Iffley Road track.

He was "surrounded by his family who were as loved by him, as he was loved by them," the family said in a statement Sunday, per the Associated Press.

"He banked his treasure in the hearts of his friends."

Bannister, who enjoyed a distinguished medical career as a neurologist upon retiring from athletics, had been battling Parkinson's disease since 2011.

"There is not a single athlete of my generation who was not inspired by Roger and his achievements both on and off the track," IAAF president Sebastian Coe, who ran a mile world record of 3:47.33 in 1981, said.

Indeed, Bannister himself always considered his accomplishments away from the track to outweigh his athletic endeavors.

"None of my athletics was the greatest achievement," he said. "My medical work has been my achievement and my family with 14 grandchildren. Those are real achievements."

Bannister's mile record stood for just 46 days, as Australian rival John Landy bettered his mark with a time of 3:57.9. The current world record belongs to Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj, who completed the distance in just 3:43.13 in July 1999.

While he may no longer hold the record, Bannister's place in athletics history was cemented the second he crossed the line in 1954.