A star runner from Kenya, Faith Kipyegon, is set to try to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes this summer, Nike said on Wednesday.
Kipyegon, 31, set the world record in the women’s mile, running it in 4 minutes 7.64 seconds in 2023. More than 70 years after Roger Bannister, a British medical student, became the first person to break the four-minute barrier, it remains the next frontier for women’s middle-distance running.
The attempt is scheduled for June 26 in Paris, four months after a study predicted that Kipyegon could run a mile as fast as 3:59.37 by reducing drag with better drafting off pacesetters.
Breaking four minutes would require her to run two seconds faster per lap on the four laps around the track, compared to her previous best, demanding enormous effort, intricate planning and flawless execution.
It took 34 years to trim roughly eight seconds from a women’s world mile record of 4:15.61, set by the Romanian runner Paula Ivan in 1989, to Kipyegon’s current mark, as Nike, which sponsors her, noted. Kipyegon would have to shave that much time in a single attempt to break four minutes, a possibility that has been met with skepticism in the world of elite running.
Kipyegon, a three-time Olympic champion in 1,500 meters, known as the metric mile, said in a statement that she was seeking another challenge.
“I thought, what else?” she said in the statement. “Why not dream outside the box?”
Factors ranging from wind and pacing to shoe technology and mental training will all play a significant role in determining whether Kipyegon can run a mile in under four minutes.
The study predicting that Kipyegon could do it posited that her best chance would involve drafting, or the use of pacesetters running in formation around her to help reduce wind resistance. The study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science in February, suggested that one female pacer run 1.3 meters ahead of her and another the same distance behind.
Nike did not reveal its plans for pace-setting or the use of racing spikes, whose enhanced foam cushioning and carbon-fiber plates have helped make sub-four-minute miles more common in men’s running.
The company said the attempt would be made in a controlled environment at Stade Charléty, a stadium in the 13th arrondissement. Kipyegon set the 1,500-meter world record of 3:49.04 at a meet there in 2024. (A mile is a little over 1,600 meters.)
Nike created similar experimental conditions on a course in Vienna in 2019, when the Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge became the first person to run the 26.2 miles of a marathon in under two hours.
Even if she achieved her goal, Kipyegon might not set an official world record. For World Athletics, the global governing body for track and field, to ratify a sub-four-minute women’s mile, rules about pace setting have to be followed.
According to the study, Kipyegon would have her best chance at breaking the mark if her pacers were substituted after the first half-mile. That would not conform to pacing rules. Kipchoge’s sub-two-hour marathon was not considered an official record as he used rotating pacers.
It is also possible, researchers said, for Kipyegon to be paced to a sub-four mile by one group of elite female distance runners, which would qualify as a world record.
But there are very few female runners who can keep up with Kipyegon. Only Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands has come within five seconds of her record in the mile. If Kipyegon is paced by two elite male milers, a record would not count for a women-only race.
An official record, however, might not be her priority.
“I want this attempt to say to women, ‘You can dream and make your dreams valid,’” Kipyegon said in her statement.
Jeré Longman covers international sports, focusing on competitive, social, cultural and political issues around the world.
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