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Sports|Given the Right Conditions, Could a Woman Run a 4-Minute Mile?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/sports/mile-run-world-record-faith-kipyegon.html
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Researchers say it’s possible, at least for Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, who holds the world record for the distance.
Feb. 25, 2025Updated 8:24 p.m. ET
Nearly three-quarters of a century after Roger Bannister of Britain, in 1954, became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes, an achievement that many at the time thought unattainable, scientists are saying they believe a woman could now also break the barrier and further expand the limits of human possibility.
A study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science on Tuesday evening theorizes that Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, who in 2023 set the women’s world record of 4 minutes 7.64 seconds, could feasibly run a time of 3:59.37 as soon as this year by sufficiently reducing aerodynamic drag with improved drafting off pacesetters.
Critics might dismiss a woman’s bid for a four-minute mile as unlikely, a publicity stunt or a mere lab experiment. But the study’s authors believe a successful try would erase a mental barrier, inspire other women and become a symbolic achievement in a race where running four laps of a track, in just under one minute per lap, still holds a kind of mythical allure.
“A lot of people said it was physiologically impossible for Bannister or anybody to break four minutes, and I’m sure lots of bros are going to say, ‘No way a woman is ever going to run four minutes; it’s seven seconds away,’” said Rodger Kram, a biomechanist and emeritus professor at the University of Colorado and one of the authors of the study. “But people have said women can’t do a lot of things, and then they have.”
What is not yet known is whether Kipyegon would be interested in the challenge. Kram said he was sending a copy of the study to her and her coach. Kipyegon could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Her agent was said to be traveling and unavailable for an interview.
The study posits that the best chance for Kipyegon to break four minutes would be via drafting, or the use of pacesetters to to help reduce wind resistance, with one pacesetter in front of her and another in back for the first half of the race. Those pacers would be substituted with two different escorts for the final two laps.
