Nike announces first women’s sub-4 mile attempt in June

Is there anything Faith Kipyegon can’t do? The mile and 1,500m world record holder’s sponsor, Nike, doesn’t think so; the brand has announced it will mount a “moon shot” event for Kipyegon as early as June 26 in the hope that she will become the first woman in history to break four minutes for the mile.

Nike Breaking4 is set to take place at Paris’s Stade Sébastien Charléty–site of the Paris Diamond League, where Kipyegon ran both her 1,500m world record and her fastest-ever 5,000m race (also a world record at the time) in 2023–a little over nine weeks from now, sometime between June 26 and June 28. It won’t be easy: Kipyegon’s mile world record, also set in 2023, stands at 4:07.64–almost eight seconds off the four-minute mark.

“I’m a three-time Olympic champion,” Kipyegon told the brand recently. “I’ve achieved World Championship titles. I thought, What else? Why not dream outside the box? And I told myself, If you believe in yourself, and your team believes in you, you can do it.”

A recent study speculated that Kipyegon could indeed become the first woman to run a sub-four-mile under the right conditions, and with an advanced pacing strategy, similar to the projects mounted for former marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, Breaking2 in 2017 and INEOS 1:59 in 2019.

Sub-4 is still a significant achievement for male runners, with fewer than 2,000 having ever done it since Roger Bannister’s historic race in Oxford almost 71 years ago.

Nike notes that the last time eight seconds were trimmed from the women’s record, it took 30 years. (Paula Ivan of Romania broke the existing record with 4:15.61 in 1989.) But when Kipyegon set her mark in 2023, she took almost five seconds off the mark set by Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan in 2019, so we know she is capable of extraordinary things–though it’s also partly a measure of the pace of technological change when it comes to training, apparel and racing shoe technology.

When she set that record, it had been seven years since she had last raced a mile, which isn’t an Olympic or world championships event, though the distance is contested at some Diamond League meets. (Kipyegon achieved her world record at the 2023 Monaco Diamond League.) In fact, she has only three mile results on her World Athletics page: 4:16.71 in Brussels in 2015, 4:18.60 in Oslo in 2016 and her world record, 4:07.64 in Monaco in 2023.

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Nike president and CEO Elliott Hill said, “Faith is a once-in-a-generation talent, and her audacious goal is exactly what Nike stands for. Breaking4 is the kind of bold dream we will do everything in our power to make real—helping both elite and everyday athletes believe anything is possible.”

In a sneak peek at plans for the event held over Zoom on April 17, Nike VP/GM of global women’s running Seema Simmons discussed just how far women’s sports have come in the Nike era, and how significant Kipyegon’s attempt will be, both for women’s track and for the next generation of girls dreaming of achievement in all spheres of life. (Kipyegon is mother to a six-year-old daughter, Alyn.) She spoke repeatedly of Kipyegon’s courage in taking on the challenge, and promised the brand’s continued support even if she is not successful on this first attempt. “We think that just showing the journey and the courage that she has, the determination and all that goes into it–that is truly what’s inspiring generations to feel the courage to chase their own dreams and push boundaries,” Simmons said.

The brand also notes that Kipyegon has been with Nike for almost 15 years and has enjoyed mentorship from other great athletes, including Kipchoge (a very accomplished former track athlete). Kipchoge missed the Breaking2 attempt by 25 seconds; two years later, he successfully broke two hours at the INEOS 1:59 event in Vienna, running 1:59:40.2.) But none of these attempts (including Kipyegon’s) count as official world records, because of the pacing strategies, and the fact that they are not actual races. (Breaking2 did involve other runners, but Nike has not announced that any others will challenge Kipyegon during Breaking4.)