Nike Announces Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon vs. the 4-Minute Mile

How do you make the impossible possible? You start by calling your moonshot.

And as moonshots go, Faith Kipyegon’s is as audacious as they come. The longtime Nike athlete, already the world record holder in the mile, will attempt to become the first woman to break the 4-minute threshold in the distance, harnessing the full power of Nike to help make it happen.

In the process, she’ll push the limits of sport beyond what’s long believed to be achievable, setting the stage for future generations to dream big.

“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 a young daughter. “And I told myself, ‘If you believe in yourself, and your team believes in you, you can do it.’”

Currently, no woman runner is positioned to break the 4-minute barrier alone — but that reality can change with the right partnership. Nike is providing its unyielding support for Kipyegon’s pursuit of the landmark feat: She and the brand have worked together to optimize every aspect of her Breaking4 attempt, creating the most ideal conditions for her to push the limits of possibility. What’s more, Kipyegon’s moonshot is as much about inspiring future generations to challenge the impossible as it is about redefining limits in the present, for both elite and everyday athletes.

Kipyegon will make one attempt at the milestone on June 26 at the Stade Charléty in Paris, a time and location specifically selected to align with her training schedule and maximize her performance.

“Faith is a once-in-a-generation talent, and her audacious goal is exactly what Nike stands for,” says Elliott Hill, President & CEO, NIKE, Inc. “Breaking4 is the kind of bold dream we will do everything in our power to make real — helping both elite and everyday athletes to believe anything is possible. No other brand can offer the level of expertise, innovation and support that our Nike teams can. Alongside Faith, our innovators are breaking barriers by combining cutting-edge sport science with revolutionary footwear and apparel innovation to help her achieve a truly historic goal.” 

In her attempt, Kipyegon is pursuing a feat that was once considered an insurmountable limitation and has, until now, remained beyond the reach of the world’s most elite women athletes. She will attempt to shave at least 7.65 seconds off her world record time of 4:07.64, set in 2023, to become the first woman to break the threshold Roger Bannister first surpassed roughly 70 years ago.

Long before Bannister’s historic achievement, and in the seven decades since, the mile has been held as a universal benchmark of athletic prowess among athletes in the United States — ubiquitous in track and field competition, youth fitness tests and cross-disciplinary training.

No woman has come closer than Kipyegon, who chose to attempt breaking the 4-minute mile as a challenge distinct from her dominance in the 1,500-meter run, for which she also holds the world record, and to further cement her legacy as the most decorated woman middle-distance athlete of all time.

Still, Kipyegon’s journey represents more than the achievement of specific, singular time. The pursuit itself is a symbol of courage, ambition and freedom, encouraging athletes of all backgrounds, disciplines and intensities to chase their dreams, no matter how ambitious. Her moonshot shows future generations 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,’” she says. “This is the way to go as women, to push boundaries and dream big.”

In doing just that, Kipyegon is harnessing the full power of Nike, her partner of 16 years, to optimize the conditions for her historic attempt.

Nike is obsessing every detail, spanning footwear, apparel, aerodynamics, physiology and mind science to enhance Kipyegon’s performance, underscoring the brand’s holistic approach and fundamental belief in pushing the limits of human potential.

“Advanced innovation at Nike is driven by a deep commitment to partnering with athletes like Faith, turning dreams into dares and dares into destiny,” says John Hoke, Chief Innovation Officer. “This courageous attempt at breaking a monumental boundary embodies the alchemy of art, science and athlete, resetting ambitions and amplifying impact. Together with athletes, we approach problems systemically, creatively and parametrically — no problem too large, no detail too small. As always, we stand in awe of helping athletes achieve greatness.”

To improve her record time by at least 7.65 seconds, Kipyegon will need to run each of her four laps an average of nearly 2 seconds faster. This is a significant accomplishment, considering it took 34 years to trim 8 seconds off of Paula Ivan’s record in 1989, when women’s mile times were first tracked, to Kipyegon’s current record.

Kipyegon is motivated by this challenge and aims to inspire the next generation of athletes to see freedom in pushing societal and personal limits in new ways. This includes Kipyegon’s daughter, her greatest inspiration, who will be waiting for her at the finish line, representing the complementary duality of her life as an elite athlete and a mother.

Meanwhile, Nike’s holistic support for Kipyegon’s historic attempt underscores its history as the brand built by runners, for runners, and as the greatest champion of women in sport, pioneering new paths for women athletes by inviting them into sport and delivering science-backed innovation that’s personalized and disruptive.

The project is also the latest example of Nike’s history of enabling bold, dare-to-dream sport moments, such as Joan Benoit Samuelson’s groundbreaking victory in the first women’s Olympic marathon and Eliud Kipchoge’s Breaking2 moonshot to surmount the 2-hour marathon barrier.

“For more than 50 years, Nike has made athletes’ dreams real by helping them redefine barriers and achieve the impossible,” says Tanya Hvizdak, VP, 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.”