Three-time Olympic gold medallist Faith Kipyegon will attempt to become first woman to break four-minute mile; Kenyan’s run in Paris on June 26 will not count as world record; Kipyegon has current best women’s mile time of 4:07.64; 31-year-old has won 1500m gold at last three Olympics

Faith Kipyegon is ‘dreaming outside the box’ as she looks to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes

Three-time Olympic gold medallist Faith Kipyegon will attempt to become the first woman to break the four-minute mile when she runs in Paris on June 26.

The Kenyan – Olympic champion in the 1500m at the last three editions of the Games – set the world record for the women’s mile of 4:07.64 in Monaco in July 2023.

Kipyegon will, therefore, have to trim over seven seconds off her time to dip under four minutes but the rubber track at Stade Charléty – where she has recorded her fastest 1500m and 5,000m runs – should assist her.

The 31-year-old’s time will not be an official world record as she is likely to use pacemakers and technologically-advanced kit and shoes.

Kipyegon said: “I’m a three-time Olympic champion. I’ve achieved world championship titles. I thought: What else? Why not dream outside the box?”

“Faith’s goal is not just about her breaking a four-minute mile, and that’s what’s special,” Amy Jones Vaterlaus, vice president at the Nike Sport Research Lab, told ESPN.

“It is grounded in her legacy around confidence and ambition for women and girls. She says she wants them to see they can dream their dream.”

Britain’s Roger Bannister was the first man to run a sub-four-minute mile, in May 1954, while the current men’s world record for that distance is the 3:43.13 set by Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj in Rome in 1999.