Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, a three-time Olympic champion, has set her sights on a groundbreaking achievement: becoming the first woman to run a sub-four-minute mile. The 31-year-old will attempt this extraordinary feat on 26 June in Paris, although it won’t be officially recognized due to the likely use of rotating pacemakers and advanced technology from her sponsor, Nike.
Kipyegon, who currently holds the official women’s mile world record with a time of 4 minutes 7.64 seconds, needs to shave off more than seven seconds to achieve her goal. Reflecting on her decision to attempt the record, Kipyegon said, “I’m a three-time Olympic champion. I’ve achieved World Championship titles. I thought, ‘what else?’, why not dream outside the box?”
Her ambition goes beyond the record attempt itself, as she hopes to inspire other women to dream big and believe in their potential. “I want this attempt to say to women, ‘you can dream and make your dreams valid,'” she added.
Kipyegon, who became the first woman to win 1500m gold at three consecutive Olympics, also holds the world record in the 1500m. Her impressive career includes three World Championship titles in the same distance and a 5000m gold medal from the 2023 World Championships. Remarkably, she has achieved much of this success after giving birth to her daughter Alyn in 2018.
“Becoming a mother has changed my entire mental attitude,” Kipyegon said. “You have to engage yourself, you have to show your child the way.”
The idea of breaking a major running barrier is not new in the world of athletics. Roger Bannister of Britain became the first man to run a sub-four minute mile in 1954, and Diane Leather followed as the first woman to achieve a sub-five minute mile later that same year. Meanwhile, Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco still holds the men’s world record with a time of 3:43.13, set in 1999.
Kipyegon’s pursuit of history follows in the footsteps of fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who made headlines in October 2019 by becoming the first person to run a marathon in under two hours, although his achievement was not officially recognized due to the use of pacemakers.
As Kipyegon prepares for her monumental challenge in June, all eyes will be on her to see if she can make history and inspire a new generation of female athletes.
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