I just read Gladwell’s New Yorker piece on Roger Bannister. Does Gladwell know the sport well? Two assertions appear dubious to me. Gladwell writes that high schooler runners routinely break 4 minutes. Perhaps Gladwell and I use different definitions of the word routine. It appears to me to be more of a rare event than routine.
Gladwell also makes a statement to the effect that “decent” elite 10000m runners are breaking 4 minutes within a 10000m race. Has this ever happened? It may have, but it is rather misleading to assert that decent 10000m runners are breaking 4 minutes for the mile in a 10000m race. I have nothing against Gladwell but this appears to be sloppy journalism.