SAN FRANCISCO VIA PARIS
Lee Heidhues 6. 26.2025
It’s a muggy summer early evening at the Stade Charlety in Paris and the world of track and field was tuned in to the starting blocks in anticipation of Faith Kipyegon and her attempt to crash the four minute mile barrier for women. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Kipyegon
Track and field isn’t sexy enough for most Americans. It’s the brute force of football which titillates the carnivorous American.
These hulky overweight muscle bound jocks and fans need to take a look at what athleticism is all about.
Faith Kipyegon ran a 4:06:42 mile. The world’s record for a woman runner
Excerpted from Runners World 6.26.2025
Faith Kipyegon didn’t owe us anything.
At Paris’ Stade Sébastien Charléty on Thursday evening, Kipyegon raced to a 4:06.42 mile effort as part of the “Breaking4” endeavor supported by her sponsor, Nike. Decked out in an aerodynamic kit with a tailor-made speed suit, 3D-printed sports bra, and custom Victory Elite FK spikes, Kipyegon kept on sub-4 pace for the first two laps before falling off the mark in the closing half-mile.
The 31-year-old Kenyan has spoiled running fans around the world time and again for over a decade. She’s set two world records, won three-straight Olympic 1,500-meter gold medals, and earned six World Championship medals. One could rightfully look at her career and say that she didn’t need to accomplish anything else to cement her legacy.
But who other than Kipyegon would be confident enough to take on the pressure? To carry the load of trying to eclipse the “impossible barrier” that people once thought no human could surpass? Of course she would be the one to dare to try. Kipyegon would become the first woman to chase after a sub-4-minute mile.
Over 2,000 men have run a mile under 4 minutes in the years since Roger Bannister first achieved it in 1954. No woman has ever come closer than Kipyegon, who set the mile world record at 4:07.64 in Monaco two years ago and ran a 1,500-meter world record of 3:49.04 last year. And just by committing to the sub-4-minute attempt and seeing it through on Thursday, Kipyegon continued down a historic path that she’s been paving throughout her whole career–even though she came up well short of the goal time.
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