Faith Kipyegon will bid to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes on June 26 in Paris.
Kipyegon, a 31-year-old from Kenya, won the last three Olympic gold medals in the 1500m, the closest distance to the mile (1,609 meters) that’s on the Olympic program.
She is the women’s world record holder in the mile (4:07.64 from 2023) and the 1500m (3:49.04 from 2024, at the same track that will host the June 26 event).
The event is being billed as “Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon vs. the 4-Minute Mile.“
“I don’t believe it’s a matter of if a woman can break 4 minutes in the mile,” was posted on Kipyegon’s social media. “It’s a matter of when we will do it.”
Nike, which sponsors Kipyegon, is creating a “holistic system of support that optimizes every aspect of her attempt, ensuring the most ideal conditions for her moonshot.”
Other event details — such as pace-setting and whether it will be under conditions to be eligible for an official world record — have not been announced.
To break four minutes, she will need to average nearly two seconds faster per lap of the 400-meter track than her current mile 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?” Kipyegon said in a press release. “And I told myself, ‘If you believe in yourself, and your team believes in you, you can do it.’”
In 1954, Brit Roger Bannister became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes.
“I want this attempt to say to women, ‘You can dream and make your dreams valid,’” Kipyegon said in the release. “This is the way to go as women, to push boundaries and dream big.”
The seventh of eight children, Kipyegon grew up on a farm in Ndabibit, a countryside village in the Kenyan Rift Valley. She walked multiple miles to and from school. Then she began running the miles.
At 14, she was a soccer player who lined up for a one-kilometer run in PE class.
“I won that race by 20 meters,” Kipyegon said, according to World Athletics. “It is only then I knew I could run fast and be a good athlete.”
In 2011, a 17-year-old Kipyegon won the world cross country championships race for women 19 years and younger, running barefoot.
In 2016, she won the first of three consecutive Olympic 1500m titles. She had daughter Alyn in 2018.
