After Breaking the 2-Hour Marathon Barrier with Eliud Kipchoge, Nike and Faith Kipyegon Are Now Aiming for the 4-Minute Mile
Nike and the fastest woman to ever run a mile will try to do in two years what should be expected to take a decade or three.
Faith Kipyegon is the competitor at the center of Nike‘s newest moon shot project, Breaking4, as she’ll seek to become the first woman to run a mile in under 4minutes this summer. The 31-year-old Kenyan runner holds the current world record for the women’s mile at at 4:07.64, set in 2023, requiring her to shave off nearly 8 seconds to accomplish the feat.
For perspective, it took 34 years for Paula Ivan’s then-world record of 4:15.61 in 1989 to be eclipsed by 8 seconds.
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“I’m a three-time Olympic champion. I’ve achieved World Championship titles. I thought, ‘What else? Why not dream outside the box?'” Kipyegon said in a press release. “And I told myself, ‘If you believe in yourself, and your team believes in you, you can do it.'”
Kipyegon’s attempt at surpassing a 4-minute mile is scheduled for June 26 at the Stade Charléty in Paris — the timing and location of which have been chosen to align with her training schedule and maximize her performance.
Breaking4 milestone follows in the same vein as Eliud Kipchoge‘s Breaking2 moonshot challenge that culimnated in 2019. While wearing a Nike Alphafly prototype, Kipyegon’s fellow Kenyan became the first person to ever run a marathon in under 2 hours. Kipchoge’s time of 1:59:40.2 is not considered official, however, as he didn’t follow the standards for pacers and fluids and didn’t run it in an open competition.
In its bid to get Kipyegon past the 4-minute barrier, Nike has created technology and product specifically for her while also expediting the timeline of other developments. Beside footwear and apparel, the company is also zeroing in on aerodynamics, physiology and mind science.
“Faith is a once-in-a-generation talent, and her audacious goal is exactly what Nike stands for,” said Elliott Hill, Nike president and chief executive officer. “Breaking4 is the kind of bold dream we will do everything in our power to make real — helping both elite and everyday athletes to believe anything is possible. No other brand can offer the level of expertise, innovation and support that our Nike teams can. Alongside Faith, our innovators are breaking barriers by combining cutting-edge sport science with revolutionary footwear and apparel innovation to help her achieve a truly historic goal.”
Kipyegon has been a Nike athlete for 16 years, during which she set her current world record for 1,500 meters and one-time world record for 5,000 meters. She is the only three-time Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500 meters race, having won in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
English runner Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in less than 4 minutes in 1954 for an accomplishment that had widely been considered impossible for humans. 1,755 men have now ran a sub-4-minute mile, and the current record of 3:43.13 by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco has stood since 1999.
For women, a 4:30 mile is considered roughly equivalent to a man running a 4-minute mile, although fewer women have surpassed the former mark than men have the latter.
