Faith Kipyegon’s bid to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes — which she will attempt Thursday in Paris — began in essence about nine months ago while she visited the Nike campus in Beaverton, Oregon.
She was feted by her sponsor’s employees. She wore her gold (1500m) and silver (5000m) medals from the Paris Games, where she became the first woman to win an individual track race at a third consecutive Olympics.
She did testing in a sport research lab, which she described as "👀.”
At some point, Kipyegon chose to take on what she called the biggest challenge of her life.
“After everything I have achieved on the track, I decided that one woman can try, and I dare to try,” she said in an Amazon documentary titled “Breaking4.”
Kipyegon, who ran miles barefoot to and from school in Kenya’s Rift Valley, grew up to become the fastest woman in history in the mile (1,609 meters). She lowered the world record to 4 minutes, 7.64 seconds in July 2023.
To get under four minutes, she will have to run nearly two seconds faster for each of her four laps of the 400-meter track at Stade Sébastien Charléty in the 13th arrondissement.
Kipyegon was asked two months ago in a press conference if she believed she would break the barrier.
“That’s a very tough question,” she answered.
Kipyegon is expected to have benefits on and around her that she did not have when she ran 4:07.64 in race conditions.
For Thursday’s event, which is not expected to be a traditional race, Nike developed what it called a speed kit: including a shoulder-to-knee, skin-tight suit and new “featherweight” spikes for her feet.
In the documentary, experts determined that a formation of five pacers surrounding Kipyegon would give her the maximum shield from air resistance. In her 2023 world record race, Kipyegon ran behind two pacers for about the first 900 meters, leaving her alone for the last 700.
NBC NEWS: The sports science behind Kipyegon’s attempt
Kipyegon’s breaking-four attempt is being compared to fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge’s bid to run a marathon in under two hours. In special events (not traditional races) with pacing groups, Kipchoge ran 2:00:25 in 2017 and then 1:59:40 in 2019.
In between those two events, Kipchoge lowered the official marathon world record to 2:01:39 in 2018. When he ran 1:59:40 in 2019, he went 1.37% faster than his world record.
On Thursday, Kipyegon must go 3.09% faster than her world record to break four minutes.
Kipyegon, a 31-year-old mom nicknamed SS — for Superstar — by her coach Patrick Sang, is a few years younger than Kipchoge was in 2019.
“When she told me that she wants to be the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes, I was really excited for her,” said Kipchoge, who is part of Kipyegon’s training group in Kenya. “I told Faith, ‘Believe in yourself. You will not be competing with anybody, but you will be competing with the time and the world.’”
