Latest news with #subfourmile
The Guardian
25-06-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Nike PR stunt or giant leap forward? Faith Kipyegon aims to make history
Just before 8pm local time in Paris on Thursday, Faith Kipyegon will play her favourite pre-race song, Shakira's Try Everything, to pump her up. Then, after listening to the hit from Zootropolis, she will try to chase down the impossible. The 31-year-old from Kenya is already a three-time Olympic champion, the world mile record holder, and arguably the greatest female middle-distance runner in history. And now she intends a spectacular encore, by becoming the first woman to crash through the four-minute mile barrier. Every scientific instinct suggests it won't happen - at least not yet. Kipyegon's world record for the mile is 4min 07.64sec, which means she will have to find nearly eight seconds. In a sport decided by fractions, that is a chasm. Yet Faith certainly has faith that she can emulate Sir Roger Bannister, who was the first man to achieve the feat in 1954. 'You can't limit yourself,' she says. 'You have to dream, to go for that risk and just believe in yourself in everything you do. We all have the same dreams. And what a man can do, a woman can do.' They are powerful words. But biology may deliver a blunt reality check. As the top track and field coach Steve Magness points out, to be capable of a sub-four mile an athlete needs to be capable of running the 800m in around 1min 53sec – four seconds quicker than Kipyegon has ever gone. While she will be armed with several new pieces of kit, including a special aerodynamic skinsuit with '3D-printed aeronodes', which draws on similar technology used by British Cycling and British Skeleton when they dominated the Summer and Winter Olympics, it is unlikely to make a substantial difference. One scientist involved in the British Cycling skinsuits told the Guardian they were never used by Team GB in track and field because the benefits did not translate. 'I expect the suit to have negligible effect. At world-class level, we'd expect a 10% reduction in drag to have around a nine times greater performance advantage for cycling compared to running.' So what else is there? Well, Kipyegon has new super spikes, which Nike says are lighter and more propulsive than ever before. Even so, they are unlikely to be worth more than a second over a mile. That brings us to drafting. When Kipyegon runs she will have a team of pacers surrounding her to block out the wind and make her run faster. But how much faster? According to the scientist, it is hard to see anything more than a two to three second improvement from 'perfect' drafting in real-world conditions. That would still leave Kipyegon several seconds short of her dream. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Another leading sports scientist, Ross Tucker, reckons that another option to gain around 0.5 secs might be for Kipyegon to run in lane six to create a 'circle' or bubble around her, rather than a line. 'So she'd benefit from drafting to the front, front left and front right,' he says. That, acknowledges Tucker, would still not be enough, but he wonders whether Nike might yet have another trick up its sleeve. Perhaps. Or maybe the reality is more prosaic. There is no magic bullet, yet, to get Kipyegon all the way to 3min 59sec. Certainly Nike is not making the sort of bullish noises it did when it funded Eliud Kipchoge's first attempt at a sub-two hour marathon in 2017. Back then, Nike also gave detailed specifics when it came to the improvement from its super shoes. This time around its experts have been far more vague. Still, a question remains. Would Nike really be doing this if Kipyegon didn't have a shot at the impossible – even if it won't count as a world record under World Athletics' rules as it is not an official race? It all makes for a highly intriguing four minutes of sport. So what is it? Nike PR stunt or groundbreaking moment for women? Kipyegon is about to face her moment of truth.
The Guardian
12-06-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Skinsuits, superspikes and a sticky headband: how Faith Kipyegon hopes to run sub-four minute mile
Eight seconds. It's barely enough time for most people to tie their shoelaces. But when you are Faith Kipyegon, and you're trying to become the first woman to shatter the four-minute mile barrier, those eight seconds constitute a chasm. But now we know how the 31-year-old Kenyan, who set the mile world record of 4 mins 7.64 secs in 2023, intends to close the gap and emulate Sir Roger Bannister's historic feat. On Thursday her sponsor Nike revealed that when Kipyegon makes her sub-four attempt in Paris on 26 June, she will be wearing a special aerodynamic skinsuit with '3D-printed aeronodes', along with new super spikes, which are even lighter and more propulsive. The skinsuit, which would not currently be permitted in official World Athletics races, draws on similar technology used by British Cycling and British Skeleton when they dominated the Summer and Winter Olympics between 2008 and 2018. Crucially, the aeronodes are able to create a 'turbulence' effect designed to reduce the amount of wind resistance acting on the body when Kipyegon runs. 'The magic with the aeronodes on the suit and leg sleeves is that it creates a controlled turbulence area,' said Lisa Gibson of Nike's Innovation lab. 'It splits the air in front of Faith and creates smaller eddies behind her to reduce drag.' Reducing resistance is clearly a key factor in the attempt. A recent scientific paper by Prof Rodger Kram, a physiologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, suggested that Kipyegon could run a sub-four minute mile by using pacemakers deployed in front and behind her to reduce drag. The mother of one will also be wearing a headband designed to further reduce drag, as well as the latest prototype of Nike super spikes, the Victory Elite FK, which have 3mm more foam and are lighter than the track spikes she wore when winning Olympic 1500m gold last year. And while most experts remain sceptical that Kipyegon can do it, despite the added technological assistance, the scientist behind her attempt says that confidence is building. Brett Kirby, who worked with Eliud Kipchoge to help the Kenyan break the two-hour barrier in the marathon, said he understood the scepticism. However he said he was convinced that Kipyegon could go much quicker. 'I'm a scientist and it's all about thinking critically,' said Kirby, the senior principal scientist at Nike's sport research lab. 'So when I first heard the idea, I was like, 'man, I don't know. It sounds really hard to get those eight seconds.' But when we stepped back and looked at Faith in 2023, and things like her pacing – which may have initially looked optimal – we realised that there was more there.' 'When you start to add on these other pieces of the puzzle, and put them together to make that matrix, then things start to get really exciting,' he added. 'You start to get more inspired. You say, 'Wow, OK, these pieces come together like a really nice system, from the apparel side, the footwear side, the location side, and maybe some tweaks in preparation'. And before you know it, you have this matrix that comes together.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion 'And you put all the pieces together, and it slowly builds more and more confidence as we get closer.' Not everyone in Kipyegon's team is as cautious. Simon Bairu, her sports marketing partner, believes it is only a matter of time before she makes history. 'When she breaks four, she won't just set a record,' he said. 'She'll change what every girl watching thinks is possible. I don't think she can do it – I know she will.' Nike's experts would not be drawn on just how much of a performance boost Kipyegon might expect from their new technology. However Carrie Dimoff, of Nike's Innovation Footwear department, said that Kipyegon's new spikes had shown greater energy return in testing. Dimhoff also confirmed that while the new spikes had not yet been submitted to World Athletics for approval, as they had been making ongoing adjustments to them, they did conform to the rules. 'The height of the shoe does not actually get any higher,' she added. 'We've just diverted some of the height from other materials into that energetic air sole design to give Faith more efficient push off and more energy return with every stride.'
