Faith Kipyegon Is Ready to Give It Her All: “This Will Cement My Legacy”

There are two things Faith Kipyegon will very likely be doing the night before she attempts to run the mile in under four minutes.

She’ll pray – “I always pray, before going to bed, before going out for training and before racing because in everything we do, we put God first, before we do anything.” And she’ll likely watch a Nollywood film. “I like African movies, especially Nigerian movies,” she told a virtual press conference this week. Funny movies, in particular, help the Kenyan Olympian “laugh and put tension away.”

With just a few days to go ‘til the big day, the anticipation is building. Athletics fans will be watching keenly to see if Kipyegon can achieve her biggest feat yet; a feat that no woman has yet achieved. “Breaking four will really cement my legacy,” Kipyegon says. “It'll give hope to the next generation, and women to believe that we can expand our boundaries, and think big and dream big.”

For the Kenyan Olympian to achieve this monumental goal, she’ll need to cut off about 7.65 seconds off her personal best. Her personal best also happens to be the world record, which she set in 2023 at a Diamond League event in Monaco. That record, of 4:07:64, means it’s Kipyegon against herself, and with that in mind, her longtime brand sponsor, Nike, who is staging the event, has dubbed it Breaking4: Faith Kipyegon vs. the 4-Minute Mile.

Come June 26, 2025, Kipyegon will run four laps of the Stade Sébastien Charléty in Paris, aiming to become the first woman to ever break the four-minute barrier. It’s been over 70 years since a man, Sir Roger Bannister, did this, and it’s more than time for a woman athlete to achieve a similar feat. With her illustrious achievements as an unbeatable middle distance runner – she’s the triple world record holder in the mile, 1,500 meters, and 5,000 meters – Kipyegon is poised to be the woman to give it a shot.

Preparing to run a sub-four minute mile

Kipyegon has been training with her coach, Patrick Sang, who she sees as a father figure, in Eldoret. “Patrick has been always telling me to be patient, just focus and when you train hard, you just get this done,” she says. The physical training hasn’t been changed for the attempt, and they’ve been doing similar workouts to the ones that set her up for success in Paris last year when she won her third straight 1,500 Olympic title, after breaking her own 1,500 record on the same track where she will run next Thursday.

It’s the mental approach that Kipyegon says is different this time around. “For me, I would say being mentally strong and believing in everything I do,” she says. “Believing in the training, believing in waking up to empower the next generation, believing in everything that has been from my younger time when I was running barefoot to where I am now. It has really given me that drive to wake up and go for training and just be strong.”

Kipyegon aims to inspire other young Kenyans, like her daughter, six-year-old Alyn, and little girls across the continent, and indeed the world, too. “My message to young girls, especially the small ones like my daughter, is not to limit them themselves,” she says.

“They have to dream and make their dreams valid because the next generation is looking up to us to show them the way. This is what I'm doing now. I think when Alyn is eight or 10 years old, she will know what I was doing, but at the moment she doesn't understand what I'm going to do. When she's grown up a little bit, she will understand that this is the journey of inspiring the next generation.”

Fast shoes for a fast time

As part of her preparations, Kipyegon will be wearing custom-made spikes and an aerodynamic suit from Nike, in her favorite color of purple, meant to represent the passion she brings to each of her races. The color of her suit is significant to Kipyegon for another reason. “It symbolizes the love of my country. It's almost a combination of colors, and if you look keenly [on the suit] you can see it has Kenyan colors somewhere, and there’s also green, it symbolizes the next generation of the young kids like Alyn.

To mark the occasion, Nike is also releasing footwear and apparel in the purple color, with red and green accents present throughout the collection, mirroring the Kenyan flag and celebrating both her heritage and global impact.

Watch 'Faith Kipyegon vs the Four-Minute Mile'

Nike is hosting a private screening of the event in Kenya for Kipyegon's friends and family. There will be a livestream broadcast available on the company's YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok accounts, as well as Prime Video, which will also be airing a limited-series documentary about her preparation for the attempt (available from June 20).

If you live in Paris, you can be there when Kipyegon crosses that finish line by registering on the Nike site to go see in her person at the Stade Sébastien Charléty, where she broke the 1,500-meter record. “I have beautiful memories there,” she says. "And now we are going for the special one."

Fellow Kenyan and distance runner Eliud Kipchoge, who himself broke a major barrier when he ran a marathon in under two hours in 2019, will also be there on the day. Kipchoge is Kipyegon’s training partner and a source of inspiration. “It'll be lovely to see Eliud after the finish line,” she adds. “I will feel so great, having somebody like Eliud who has tried before an attempt like this, and my family, and all my fans [be there to watch me] achieve what many people think is impossible, and it becomes possible. It'll be really special for me.”

And if you’ve sent any kind of support to Kipyegon, she appreciates it. “I get positive messages from around the world that I can do it. It really motivates me,” she says. “I know it will not be easy but I’m going to try my best and see what the finish line offers.”