The shoes Roger Bannister wore when he ran the first sub-4-minute mile sold for more than $300,000 at an auction Thursday.
The auction was streamed on Periscope. Watch a replay here. The final bid was £220,000, or about $340,000 dollars, though the final official amount could be different based on extra fees.
The British Olympian wore shoes that weighed 4 1/2 ounces when he clocked 3:59.4 at the Iffley Road Track in Oxford on May 6, 1954, according to the auction company’s website.
“I could see there was an advantage in having the shoe as light as possible,” Bannister said, according to the website. “The leather is extremely thin, and the spikes are unusually thin, as I used a grindstone to make them even thinner. These shoes are the last tangible link I have with the four-minute mile.”
In May, it was reported that a stopwatch used to time Bannister’s four-minute mile was auctioned for £20,000 (about $31,000).
Bannister, 86, revealed last year that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years earlier.
Bannister said part of the proceeds from the shoes auction will go to a charity that encourages neurological research, according to the auction company.
MORE TRACK AND FIELD: Watch Roger Bannister’s sub-four-minute mile
