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Can a woman run a 4-minute mile? Faith Kipyegon is about to try

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Tomorrow in Paris, Kenyan track star Faith Kipyegon will attempt to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes.

It's a daunting challenge. Though the mile has lost much of its lustre since its mid-20th-century heyday and is not part of the Olympics or the world championships, some still consider it the ultimate test of a runner. It demands a special blend of speed, strength, fitness, endurance, intelligence and, because it's so painful, raw courage. And, to do it in four minutes, Kipyegon won't have to merely break the women's world record — she'll have to obliterate it.

In the 71 years since English medical student Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on a cinder track at Oxford University, the men's record has been lowered to 3:43.13 (by Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999). But the women's record, set by Kipyegon herself in 2023 in Monaco, is 4:07.64.

A mile is 1,609 metres — a little over four full laps of the 400-metre track. So, for Kipyegon to go sub-4, she'll have to trim her world-record pace by about two seconds per lap. That may not sound like much, but at a four-minute-mile pace two seconds equals about 13.4 metres. So, the 31-year-old mom will have to beat the ghost of her 2023 world-record self by about 54 metres.

If anyone can do it, though, it's Kipyegon. She's won three world titles and three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 1,500m — the closest thing to a mile offered at the majors. She's also the reigning world champion in the 5,000m and took silver in that distance at the Paris Olympics last year. When Kipyegon

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