Nike has announced that the world’s best middle distance runner, Faith Kipyegon, will attempt to become the first woman to run a four-minute mile.
Called Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon vs the 4-Minute Mile, the project will see the world record holder in the mile and 1,500m take on what Nike is calling a “moonshot” at “a historic benchmark that was once considered an insurmountable limitation.”
Utilising pacers, the latest Nike supershoes and optimising every aspect of the run, from clothing to psychology, Breaking4 will take place on 26 June 2025 at the Stade Charléty in Paris, where Kenyan Kipyegon ran her 1,500m world record.
“I’m a three-time Olympic champion. I’ve achieved World Championship titles. I thought, What else? Why not dream outside the box?” said Kipyegon. “And I told myself, ‘If you believe in yourself, and your team believes in you, you can do it.’”
Kipyegon is the mother of a young daughter, and the message she hopes to send around the world is that no matter the goal, courage comes from the attempt itself.
“I want this attempt to say to women, ‘You can dream and make your dreams valid,’” said Kipyegon. “This is the way to go as women, to push boundaries and dream big.”
We recently published a story about the possibility of a woman running a four-minute mile, based on a recent research which suggested that had Kipyegon used optimal pacing strategies in her mile world record, she could’ve potentially run 3:59.37.
That’s considerably quicker than her actual record of 4:07.64, meaning Kipyegon will need to run 7.65 seconds faster, or almost two seconds faster per lap of the track. If she achieves the time it won’t count as an official world record, but that’s incidental. This is a project to show what could be possible if you’re brave enough to call your shot and make the attempt.
It’s a dare-to-dream chance to make history. It’s audacious, courageous, perhaps even outrageous, but if anyone can do it right now then it’s Faith Kipyegon.
