There’s a current commercial that I find fairly amusing where a younger married guy starts to say out loud that they’re planning on redoing their kitchen, even though they clearly hadn’t figured out when or how they might pay for it. And as the commercial goes, his uncertainty turns to self-assuredness as he and his wife discuss how they can save for their new kitchen, quartz countertops and all. It all started with saying the seemingly impossible out loud, and before you know it, that dream becomes a reality.
Such would be the case for Kenyan runner Faith Kipyegon, who has publicly announced that she will attempt to become the first female athlete to break the vaunted four-minute mile. That attempt will happen on June 26 in Paris, the culmination of Nike’s “Breaking 4” project aimed at helping the three-time Olympic gold medalist do the unthinkable. There’s a few reasons why a particular track in Paris was chosen – it’s surface is really fast, and it’s where Kipyegon has run her fastest 1500- and 3000-meter races. The actual time of the race is to be determined based on the weather. Basically, Nike wants to create the optimal conditions for the fastest possible run. That will mean a series of pacers and anything else that might create the straightest line between start and finish. Don’t confuse this with an actual race. This is experiment in making history. So even if she does break the mark, it won’t count as an actual world record. But of course, that’s not the point.
This isn’t the first time Nike has helped say the impossible out loud and assist in it’s execution. Most notably, the shoe brand helped Eliud Kipchoge break the two-hour marathon mark in 2019, also using a closed course and a series of rotating pacemakers. That not a recognized world record either, but it’s still the fastest anyone has covered that distance not in a car or bicycle. And it broke a mark we otherwise would have believed impossible based on any notion of human physiology. But, after first saying the unimaginable out loud, it became a reality.
At the present, Faith’s effort still feels like a long shot. Her best time is 4:07 point something, run in 2023. And that was five seconds faster than the last record. No one else is even close, so her unofficial record would be over ten seconds faster than her closest female competitor. It would be like skipping a colony on Mars and going straight to Jupiter. It’s entirely likely that Kipyegon will run 4:05, or perhaps even 4:04, which would be a significant accomplishment but certainly not Breaking 4, or at least not literally.
Of course, perhaps that’s the point. One of the greatest inherent qualities of sport is the pursuit of human excellence, expanding the boundaries of what we once considered possible. Some of that is happening through technology, especially in a sport like track and field. It’s quite obvious that one of the greatest accelerants in track world records is carbon based super shoes, basically a spring board compared to the flat pieces of rubber we used to strap to our feet. But beyond the science, sport and things like a four-minute mile are about doing things we once thought we couldn’t. It reminds me of when I was running in high school, and someone would say they were going to run sub 17 in a 5K cross country, and we thought that was ridiculous. But it almost didn’t matter, because it made you think that you might be able to try. It also reminds me of when we challenged my oldest to try and hit a certain score on the SAT, certainly higher than he was thinking, and that changed his outlook Trying to break a four-minute mile is as much about, say, the moon landing as it is about anything else. It means you’re saying the impossible out loud, then committing to failing until you, or someone else gets there. And not to be political, but it’s a spirit I fear we’re losing in a current ethos of shrinking instead of growing, where failure isn’t seen as progress. It’s why hearing Faith Kipyegon say she’s going for a four-minute mile is inspiring, even though she almost assuredly is not going to get there.
And why that couple in the commercial will eventually get that new kitchen.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler.
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