One of my heroes died yesterday--the first man to run a mile in under 4 minutes. He was A medical Student at the time, a true amateur, never had a coach, trained very little by modern standards. He went on to become a Neurologist and made some advances in the treatment of Parkinson's disease and then ironically developed it himself.
AndyWarhol said that we could all become famous for just 15 minutes, RogerBannister's fame was very real and lasted just under 4 minutes.