Faith Kipyegon And Nike Aim To Break 4-Minute Mile, A Female First

The 1,500-meter world-record holder for women, Faith Kipyegon, has a new dream. Nike hopes to help make it happen as part of the brand’s new Breaking4 effort to push Kipyegon toward becoming the first female to break the 4-minute-mile barrier.

The two have choreographed every component of the attempt, set for June 26 at Stade Charléty in Paris, with every element of aerodynamics, apparel, footwear technology and race conditions designed to help the three-time Olympic champion from Kenya shave at least 7.65 seconds off her 2023 world record time of 4:07.64.

“I’m a three-time Olympic champion,” she says. “I’ve achieved the 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.’”

Since Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile roughly 70 years ago, Kipyegon is the closest any woman has come to achieving the mark for females.

Nike, a 16-year partner of the runner, is helping set the conditions, saying it is about setting goals and inspiring girls. “Faith is a once-in-a-generation talent, and her audacious goal is exactly what Nike stands for,” says Elliott Hill, Nike president and CEO. “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 matter the result on June 26, Kipyegon hopes her effort encourages others. “I want this attempt to say to women, ‘You can dream and make your dreams valid,’” she says. “This is the way to go as women, to push boundaries and dream big.

The timing and location of the attempt aligns with Kipyegon’s training schedule. Nike has employed its resources to look at every detail of the attempt, including footwear, apparel, aerodynamics, physiology and mind science. John Hoke, Nike’s chief innovation officer, says partnering with athletes like Kipyegon helps the brand as it pushes art and science, “resetting ambitions and amplifying impact.”

In 2017, Nike’s Breaking2 challenge saw Eliud Kipchoge better the current marathon world record by nearly three minutes in a planned event in Monza Italy. While he didn’t break the two-hour mark then, as he hoped, two years later in Vienna, Austria, he did just that, finishing a marathon in 1:59:40. Throughout the process, Nike tested prototype running technology, something the brand could do again during Kipyegon’s effort.

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“Together with athletes,” Hoke says, “we approach problems systemically, creatively and parametrically—no problem too large, no detail too small.”

Kipyegon knows she needs to reduce her average lap time on the four-lap track by nearly two seconds, not something to be taken lightly. When women’s mile times were first tracked, Paula Ivan set a record in 1989 that it took 34 years before Kipyegon trimmed eight seconds from in her current mark.

“Faith epitomizes everything we love about sport and the believe we have in our athletes,” says Tanya Hyizdak, Nike’s vice president of global sports marketing, adding that the Breaking4 “moon shot” is the next step in looking for bold pursuits in the world of sport.

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