‘Strong.’
This is how, in her own words at a recent press conference, Faith Kipyegon is feeling ahead of her next challenge. The challenge in question is ‘Breaking4’ – and should she accomplish its objective, she will become the first woman in history to run a mile in under four minutes. ‘I just want to be myself and be positive,’ she adds.
A Nike creation, Breaking4 will be staged on the evening of Thursday 26 June at the Stade Charléty in Paris, France. It is set to be an immense spectacle, which will be streamed live to avid audiences across the world – but if all goes to plan, Kipyegon’s work will be done in less than four minutes.
What everyone's reading
‘You cannot limit yourself,’ adds Kipyegon, who turned 31 in January. ‘You have to dream and go for that dream. What a man can do, a woman can do.’
Here’s the latest on the challenge, just before it happens.
Running into unknown territory
What Kipyegon is doing is the antonym of easy. No woman, to date, has ever run a mile in under four minutes. In fact, even when a 25-year-old Roger Bannister became the first-ever man to break the four-minute barrier for the mile at Oxford’s Iffley Road track in 1954, clocking 3:59.4 on the stopwatch, the British junior doctor’s achievement was considered nigh on miraculous. More than 2,000 elite-level men have gone on to run a mile in under four minutes since then, yes – but it is still regarded as one of the toughest running quests of them all.
For high-performing women runners, breaking five minutes for the mile has long been the gold standard. Britain’s Diane Leather was the first known woman to achieve this feat, running the distance in 4:59.6 just 23 days after Bannister secured his legendary sub-4. At the time, both runners had reset history by a fraction of a second.
Now, though, Kipyegon and Nike are attempting something truly audacious. The current women’s mile world record – set by Kipyegon herself in July 2023 – sits at 4:07.64. To break this already intimidating target, she’ll need to shave at least 7.65 seconds from her time. This means transitioning from a pace of around 2:34 min/km to 2:29 min/km. In mile terms, that’s massive.
Going the extra mile
The current world record holder in the mile and 1500m and a three-time Olympic 1500m champion, Kipyegon is the obvious candidate for the Breaking4 task – especially since she is, of course, a Nike athlete as well. Breaking4 will be a carefully curated experiment rather than an open, athlete versus athlete competition. It will see her – and her alone – race against the clock.
In name and ambition, Breaking4 echoes Breaking2: another brazen Nike challenge, held in November 2016, that aimed to produce the world’s first sub-2-hour marathon. Three athletes, including Eliud Kipchoge, took part in the test around the Formula 1 circuit in Monza, Italy. Kipchoge fared the best of the trio by a considerable margin – but he still fell painfully short when it came to the task at hand, running 2:00:25.
Take two for the sub-2 came in October 2019 with the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, Austria. Here, we just had Kipchoge on the start list, supported by seven groups of 41 elite pacemakers who swept on and off the road in expertly choreographed chevron formations. This time, Kipchoge ran a groundbreaking 1:59:40 – and marathon running became more exciting and entrancing than ever before. (I’m still not over it.)
Now, no doubt inspired by the heroics of Kipchoge, who is her close friend, mentor and training companion, Kipyegon wants be first time lucky with her mile mission. That’s why her team at Nike has gone to great lengths to help her bring the sub-4 dream to fruition.
Perfect pacing
Kipchoge was assisted by waves of pacers when he shattered the two-hour barrier for the marathon. This was one of the reasons why it wasn’t eligible to be ratified as a marathon world record – but it did play a big part in helping to generate that sub-2.
It makes sense, then, that Kipyegon will have her own team of pacers for her mighty mile. We don’t know the exact logistics of this just yet and can only guess how many pacers will be involved, how far they’ll run, what formation they’ll take and so on. However, we do know one thing: Georgia Bell, the British star who scored bronze in the 1500m at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, has herself told Runner’s World that she will be one of the pacers at Breaking4.
As for the others who will feature in the pacing line-up? Get your predictions in now. We just have a hunch that they’ll all be laced up in purple spikes – not dissimilar to the way that Kipchoge’s pacers all donned bright pink Vaporflys for the INEOS 1:59 Challenge. ‘It symbolises the love of my country,’ says Kipyegon, explaining why purple is her favourite colour. ‘It’s a combination of many colours and I think that it’s beautiful.’
Custom kit
Kipyegon will be dressed head to toe, quite literally, in Nike’s most cutting-edge track running apparel and footwear, which has been specifically engineered to reduce weight and drag and to increase aerodynamics and speed. Her headband, arm sleeves, leg sleeves and one-piece ‘Fly Suit’ are all covered with ‘Aeronodes’, while her one-of-a-kind Victory Elite FK track spikes – coloured purple, obviously – weigh just 85g. ‘The spikes feel totally different to the Victory 2, which I’m used to,’ says Kipyegon, commenting on her innovative Breaking4 look. ‘It’s a fast and beautiful shoe.’
That aside, have we mentioned the sports bra? The envy of all sports bra wearers, Kipyegon’s FlyWeb bra is 3D printed using a TPU material, making it soft, breathable and almost weightless. ‘When I tried the bra and the suit, it was really beautiful – in looks as well,’ smiles Kipyegon. ‘It feels so good and comfortable. It’s so light that you don’t feel like you have anything on your body.’
Pre-race rituals
Before a race, in addition to focusing on all the good things like nutrition, hydration and sleep, you’ll likely try to channel positive thoughts and get into the zone, despite those underlying bubbles of emotion and adrenaline. But what does Kipyegon do?
‘I pray before going to bed, before training and before racing,’ she says. ‘I do pray a lot. I also like watching funny movies the night before a race, because they make me laugh and forget about other things for a while. My favourite movies are African movies.’
Kipyegon, who wakes up at 5:40am to start running at 6am in training, also likes to listen to music by Shakira to get pumped-up for workouts. Perhaps this is her secret sauce...
Moving powerfully for women
Kipyegon is not just a formidable athlete with an enviable world championships medal collection – she is also a mother.
Her daughter Alyn, born in 2018, is her greatest inspiration – and, one day, Kipyegon hopes to return the favour. ‘At the moment, she [Alyn] doesn’t understand what I’m about to do, but I hope that when she grows up she knows about it and is inspired by it,’ she says.
But through Breaking4, Kipyegon doesn’t just intend to positively influence her daughter – she also hopes that she can motivate girls and women everywhere to aim high and always trust in their potential.
‘The next generation is looking up to us [athletes],’ she says. ‘Breaking4 will really cement my legacy – it will give hope to the next generation and women. It will help us to believe in ourselves that anything is possible.
‘Don’t limit yourself,’ she continues. ‘You have to dream.’
The sub-4 goal is, as Nike says, a ‘moonshot’ – but if any woman is to accomplish it at this time, it’s Kipyegon. In other words, we’ve got to have Faith.
Breaking4 will be streamed live on Nike’s YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Douyin accounts, as well as on Prime Video, from 6:15pm BST on Thursday 26 June. A replay will be available shortly after the attempt.
