Kenyan runner will try to become first woman to break a 4-minute mile

23 Apr 2025 21:59
(THE NEW YORK TIMES NEW SERVICE)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, after a study suggested that she could do so under the right conditions.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, Nike, which sponsors Kipyegon, said Wednesday.In February, a study had predicted that Kipyegon, a three-time Olympic champion in 1,500 meters, known as the metric mile, could run a mile as fast as 3:59.37 by reducing drag with better drafting off pacesetters.Breaking 4 minutes would require her to run 2 seconds faster per lap on the four laps around the track, compared with her previous best.Factors ranging from wind and pacing to shoe technology and mental training will all play a significant role.The study predicting that Kipyegon could do it, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, 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 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-4-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 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-4-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-2-hour marathon was not considered an official record as he used rotating pacers.An official record, however, might not be Kipyegon's priority.
"I want this attempt to say to women, 'You can dream and make your dreams valid," she said in a statement.

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