Watch live: Faith Kipyegon attempts first women's sub-4 minute mile

UPI

5 hours ago

Faith Kipyegon of Kenya won gold in the women's 1,500-meter final at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Aug. 10 in Paris. File Photo by Paul Hanna/UPI | License Photo
June 26 (UPI) -- More than 70 years have passed since Roger Banniser became the first human to clock a sub-4 minute mile. Now, Faith Kipyegon looks to etch her name in history as the first woman to accomplish the feat Thursday in Paris.
Kipyegon will attempt the feat at 1:15 p.m. EDT Thursday at Stade Sebastien Charlety. You can watch live here, via Nike's YouTube Channel. The time will not count as an official world record because of the unsanctioned nature of the event.
"It's about being mentally strong and believing in everything I do," Kipyegon told reporters. "Believing in the training, believing in waking up to empower the next generation, believing in everything that happened from my younger time when I was running to where I am now."
The 31-year-old Kenyan athlete previously set 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter women's world records at the same Paris track. She first set the 5,000-meter mark with a 14:05.20 performance in 2023, but that record now belongs to Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay.
Kipyegon's 3:49.04 record for the 1,500, which she set when she won gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics, still stands. She won the last three Olympic gold medals in that event. Kipyegon earned silver in the 5,000-meter event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
She previously set the women's world record in the mile -- 1,609 meters -- with a 4:07.64 effort on July 21, 2023 at the Monaco Diamond League. That time is nearly five seconds faster than a 4:12.33 produced in 2019 by Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands. Kipyegon must trim off more than seven seconds off her own best time to break four minutes.
Bannister, who died in 2018, became the first person to clock a sub-4 minute mile when he ran a 3:59.4 on May 6, 1954. The British middle-distance expert went on to log a career-best 3:58.8 later that year to win a gold medal at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
Since Bannister's initial achievement, more than 2,000 men have broken the sub-4-minute mark in the mile, according to World Athletics. Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj holds the men's record, which he set with a 3:43.13 mark at the Golden Gala meet on July 7, 1999, in Rome. El Guerrouj, a three-time Olympic medalist, also holds the world record for the 1,500 (3:26:00).
Yared Nuguse holds the American record for the mile. He set that mark with a 3:43.97 effort at the Prefontaine Classic in 2023 in Eugene, Ore.
Nikki Hiltz is the fastest American female miler. She set that mark when she finished sixth with a 4:16.35 in the same event in which Kipyegon set the overall record in Monaco. Kipyegon and Hiltz are among the eight women who rank inside the Top 16 for the fastest women to complete the mile from that race alone. American Elise Cranny finished eighth in the event with a 4:16.47, the 16th-fastest mile ever ran by a woman.
Kipyegon is coached by Patrick Sang, who also works with record marathoner Eliud Kipchoge. She said she "didn't change anything" during her training, which she does in high altitude in Kaptagat, Kenya. She will be outfitted with cutting-edge gear from Nike, including a one-of-a-kind Nike Fly Suit, a FlyWeb Bra and first-of-their-kind Victory 2 Elite FK spikes. A team of pacers also will run with Kipyegon to help reduce drag.
"You can't limit yourself," Kipyegon said. "You have to dream and go for that dream," she explained. "Just believing in yourself that what a man can do, a woman can do. With all the training I do, I am dreaming of what's next in my career."