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LONDON — Roger Bannister, the first runner to break the four-minute barrier in the mile, has died. He was 88.

Bannister’s family said in a statement that he died peacefully on Saturday in Oxford, the English city where the runner cracked the feat many had thought humanly impossible on a windy afternoon in 1954.

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Bannister, who went on to pursue a long and distinguished medical career, had been slowed by Parkinson’s disease in recent years.

He was “surrounded by his family who were as loved by him, as he was loved by them,” the family said in a statement announcing his death on Sunday. “He banked his treasure in the hearts of his friends.”

British Prime Minister Theresa May remembered Bannister as a “British sporting icon whose achievements were an inspiration to us all. He will be greatly missed.”

Helped by two pacemakers, Bannister clocked three minutes, 59.4 seconds over four laps at Oxford’s Iffley Road track on May 6, 1954, to break the four-minute mile — a test of speed and endurance that stands as one of the defining sporting achievements of the 20th century.