NIKE and Faith Kipyegon announce the next “Moonshot”, an attempt to break the 4-minute threshhold by a woman!

On April 23, 2025, NIKE and Faith Kipyegon announced their partnership on what they call a “moonshot”. Remember how NIKE and Eliud Kipchoge did the #Breaking2 program? I recall how the young fans (275,000 were on our Twitter broadcast that night). I was in Doha, Qatar, that night, and I stayed up. I was transfixed. I was fascinated with the broadcast, the athletes involved with Eliud, and the interest in the 15-35 year 35-year-olds, most of whom had never considered running a marathon, and they became Eliud Kipchoge fans overnight. 

Faith Kipyegon is the finest woman middle-distance runner in the world. She is a Three-time Olympic gold medalist at 1,500 meters. WR holder at 1,500m, mile, and 5,000 m! Again, fact!

It will take a herculean effort to break 4 minutes for a woman. But “Moonshots” are very good. Right now, I suspect Faith will be able to run a mile in June in 4:03-4:05, which is astounding. But, who knows, that 14:05 strength may surprise us!

What do I think of NIKE announcing it now? It is a great concept to build interest in women’s distance running. Faith Kipyegon is the finest middle-distance women’s racer in the world. Can she push herself to such a new standard?

I am not sure, but it will surely be fun to watch! 

Faith Kipyegon will make one attempt on June 26, 2025, at the Stade Charlety in Paris, France. The Stade Charlety stadium seats just about 22,000 and is a wonderful sanctuary for our sport. I believe I visited it in 2015 and 2016.

Here’s the release on Faith Kipyegon and NIKE’s Breaking 4: 

How do you make the impossible possible? You start by calling your moonshot.

And as moonshots go, Faith Kipyegon’s is as audacious as they come. The longtime Nike athlete, already the world record holder in the mile, will attempt to become the first woman to break the 4-minute threshold in the distance, harnessing the full power of Nike to help make it happen.

In the process, she’ll push the limits of sport beyond what’s long believed to be achievable, setting the stage for future generations to dream big.

“I’m a three-time Olympic champion. I’ve achieved World Championship titles. I thought, What else? Why not dream outside the box?” says Kipyegon, a Kenyan native and mother to a young daughter. “And I told myself, ‘If you believe in yourself, and your team believes in you, you can do it.’”

No woman runner is positioned to break the 4-minute barrier alone, but that reality can change with the right…