As a young man he played football for local teams but switched to running after watching a newsreel film of Emil Zátopek's 10,000 metres victory in the 1948 London Olympics.

[2] Norris was seventh behind Zatopek in the 10,000 metres at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and ran in the marathon a Melbourne in 1956.

He held 54 English, British, Commonwealth and European records and in 1959 won the International Cross Country Championships.

[2] He won the bronze medal at the 1958 European Athletics Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, behind two Soviet runners: Sergei Popov and Ivan Filin.

[citation needed] He represented England in the 6 miles at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales.