Nike Aims To Sprint Back Into Running Spotlight By Powering 4-Minute Mile Challenge — Will It Succeed?

Nike is helping an elite athlete attempt an audacious feat: run a mile in less than four minutes.

The sports apparel and shoes company is working with Kenyan world champion Faith Kipyegon and will have her attempt to break her world record of racing 1,500 meters in 4 minutes and 7.64 seconds, set in 2023.

The company announced on Wednesday that the race will be part of Nike's Breaking4 event on June 26, although any record set would likely not be officially recognized.

While full details are awaited, Kipyegon's run will be assisted by rotating pacemakers (who join and leave the race at different points to help maintain a consistent pace for the athlete), new high-tech shoes and kit, and other technological, physiological, and psychological help.

The event will also likely garner publicity for Nike, which is struggling with weak sales and a lack of innovative products.

CEO Elliott Hill, who took over in October, has admitted that the brand has lost touch with its core sports audience and vowed to re-tune its focus to its key markets, running and basketball, among other organizational changes.

Nike turned heads in 2019 when its shoes that use a carbon fiber plate in the sole were used to run the world's first sub-two-hour marathon. However, World Athletics (WA), the sport's governing body, banned the technology a year later.

"No other brand can offer the level of expertise, innovation and support that our Nike teams can," Hill said in a statement.

"Alongside Faith, our innovators are breaking barriers by combining cutting-edge sport science with revolutionary footwear and apparel innovation to help her achieve a truly historic goal."

Nike said full details of the attempt, including information on supportive technology, will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Kipyegon won the Olympic 1,500-meter title at the 2016, 2020, and 2024 games and the world title in 2017, 2022, and 2023, when she also took the 5,000-meter gold.

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