Helen Schlachtenhaufen Falls Hard at U.S. Champs.
In an Nike-supported event similar to those in which Eliud Kipchoge attempted to break the 2-hour marathon barrier, Kipyegon will try to become the first woman in history to run a sub-4-minute mile. The modified time trial will take place at the Stade Sébastien Charléty in Paris, the same track where she broke both the 1500-meter and 5,000-meter world records.
Inside Faith Kipyegon’s 4-Minute Mile Attempt How Faith Kipyegon Regained Form After Pregnancy—she blitzed a 4:07.64 clocking two years ago in Monaco to obliterate the previous record by more than four and a half seconds—but now she’ll attempt the quest of dropping nearly 8 more seconds to break the 4-minute barrier.
Officially known as “Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon vs. the 4-Minute Mile,” it’s an partnership project with Nike that’s been in the works since 2023, and includes numerous aspects of athletic performance development.
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A mile is 1609 meters, slightly more than four full laps around a 400-meter track. She’ll have to run approximately 2 seconds faster per lap to break the 4-minute plateau.
The event is considered an exhibition, so if she runs faster than the current world record it won’t be eligible for record consideration. But Kipyegon says one of her main goals is to show the world what’s possible and to inspire women and girls around the world.
“I’m a three-time Olympic champion. I’ve achieved World Championship titles. I thought, What else? Why not dream outside the box?” says Kipyegon, a Kenya native and mother to 7-year-old daughter, Alyn. “And I told myself, ‘If you believe in yourself, and your team believes in you, you can do it.’”
How to Watch “Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon vs. the 4-Minute Mile”
The event will be streamed live on both Prime Video and Nike’s YouTube channel starting at 1:15 p.m. ET on June 26 (as well as on Nike’s Instagram, TikTok and Douyin accounts). The attempt itself is scheduled to go off at 2 p.m. ET.
The first of a two-part docuseries about Kipyegon’s training and life in Kenya support from Nike, while the second part will drop in July after the time trial.
When Kipchoge attempted to break the 2-hour marathon barrier in 2017 and 2019—successfully running 1:59:40 in the latter event in the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna—Nike supported him with logistics, innovative gear and apparel, wind-deflecting devices, and rotating pacers.
How to Avoid Injuries How to Watch Faith Kipyegon Attempt to Break the 4-Minute Mile in her audacious attempt. She’ll wear a custom pair of featherweight Victory Elite FK spikes, an innovative, first-of-its-kind speed suit, and a sports bra made of a revolutionary 3D-printed performance material.
The bespoke spikes include a ZoomX midsole, a full-length carbon-fiber plate, a slightly Zoom Air unit in the forefoot, and an airy, net-like mesh upper. Each shoe weighs less than 3 ounces—25 percent lighter than the Victory 2 spikes she has worn for several years.
“If she crosses the line in under 4 minutes, it won’t just be a new world record,” said Carrie Dimoff, the Nike Footwear Lead on the Breaking4 team. “It’ll be a new understanding of what’s possible for women in sport.”
Kipchoge’s historic time wasn’t eligible to be a world record, but it showed what was possible. He later lowered his own world record to 2:01:09 in September of 2022 at the Berlin Marathon. Anne Flower Breaks Leadville 100 Course Record Kelvin Kiptum lowered the mark to 2:00:35.
Whereas Kipchoge had to drop his marathon time 2.4 percent to break the 2-hour barrier, Kipyegon has to improve by 3.1 percent to achieve the first sub-4-minute mile. Not only is she the only woman to break 4:08, no other woman has run faster than the previous world record of 4:12.33 set by Sifan Hasaan in 2019.
Before that, Russia’s Svetlana Masterkova set the previous world record of 4:12.56 in the summer of 1996. In all, Racing in ‘Illegal’ Shoes Isn’t Cheating, and the top American, Nikki Hiltz, Kipyegon is receiving similar.
Last summer, Kipyegon broke her own How to Watch Faith Kipyegon Attempt to Break the 4-Minute Mile with a 3:49.04 clocking on the Stade Sébastien Charléty track in Paris. That time approximately translates to a 4:06 mile time.
Kipyegon owns a personal best of 1:57.68 in the 800 meters, the rough equivalent of a half mile. In her only race so far in 2025, she won a 1,000-meter race in China in 2:29.21, just 0.23 of a second off the world record. That’s the exact pace she’ll need to run for a full mile—an additional 609 meters or an additional lap and a half around the track.
“For more than 50 years, Nike has made athletes’ dreams real by helping them redefine barriers and achieve the impossible,” says Tanya Hvizdak, Nike’s Vice President, Global Sports Marketing. “Faith epitomizes everything we love about sport and the belief we have in our athletes. Her moonshot continues our legacy of supporting bold, pioneering pursuits that move the world forward through the power of sport.”
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Brian Metzler is a Boulder, Colorado, writer and editor whose work has appeared in Runner’s World, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Outside, Trail Runner, The Chicago Tribune, and Red Bulletin. He’s a former walk-on college middle-distance runner who has transitioned to trail running and pack burro racing in Colorado.
