Bibliograph

The race of the century, The battle to break the four-minute mile., Neal Bascomb

Type

Label

The race of the century, The battle to break the four-minute mile., Neal Bascomb

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Intended audience

1030, Lexile7.4, ATOS Level

resource.interestGradeLevel

MG+/Upper middle grades (6th-12th)

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The race of the century

Nature of contents

dictionaries

resource.readingGradeLevel

Text Difficulty 6 - Text Difficulty 8

Responsibility statement

Neal Bascomb

Sub title

The battle to break the four-minute mile.

Summary

Highly acclaimed author Neal Bascomb brings his peerless research and fast-paced narrative style to a young adult adaptation of one of his most successful adult books of all time, The Perfect Mile , an inspiring and moving story of three men racing to achieve the impossible - the perfect four-minute mile. There was a time when running the mile in four minutes was believed to be beyond the limits of human foot speed. In 1952, after suffering defeat at the Helsinki Olympics, three world-class runners each set out to break this barrier: Roger Bannister was a young English medical student who epitomized the ideal of the amateur; John Landy the privileged son of a genteel Australian family; and Wes Santee the swaggering American, a Kansas farm boy and natural athlete. Spanning three continents and defying the odds, these athletes' collective quest captivated the world. Neal Bascomb's bestselling adult account adapted for young readers delivers a breathtaking story of unlikely heroes and leaves us with a lasting portrait of the twilight years of the golden age of sport

Classification

Creator