{"id":654720,"date":"2025-02-26T07:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T04:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/first-female-runner-could-soon-break-the-4-minute-mile-barrier\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T07:30:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T04:30:23","slug":"first-female-runner-could-soon-break-the-4-minute-mile-barrier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/first-female-runner-could-soon-break-the-4-minute-mile-barrier\/","title":{"rendered":"#First female runner could soon break the 4-minute-mile barrier"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a367ec22ce69\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a367ec22ce69\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/first-female-runner-could-soon-break-the-4-minute-mile-barrier\/#From_%E2%80%98Breaking_2_to_%E2%80%98Breaking_4\" >From &#8216;Breaking 2&#8217; to &#8216;Breaking 4&#8217;<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/first-female-runner-could-soon-break-the-4-minute-mile-barrier\/#The_power_of_drafting\" >The power of drafting<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/first-female-runner-could-soon-break-the-4-minute-mile-barrier\/#A_magic_number\" >A magic number<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/first-female-runner-could-soon-break-the-4-minute-mile-barrier\/#Inspiring_scientists_and_runners\" >Inspiring scientists and runners<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2025\/female-runner.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/hires\/2025\/female-runner.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2025\/female-runner.jpg\" alt=\"female runner\" title=\"Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                Credit: Pixabay\/CC0 Public Domain<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister pushed through the finishing tape at Iffley Road track in Oxford, England, and collapsed into the arms of friends after becoming the first human to run a mile in less than four minutes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was the running equivalent to summiting Mount Everest for the first time,&#8221; said University of Colorado Boulder Integrative Physiology Professor Rodger Kram. &#8220;Prior to Bannister, it was considered impossible\u2014beyond the limits of human physiology.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Seven decades later, a female runner has yet to follow in Bannister&#8217;s footsteps, and some have questioned whether it&#8217;s possible. A new study <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/10.1098\/rsos.241564\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Royal Society Open <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science<\/a><\/i> by Kram and his colleagues suggests that with the right strategically timed and placed pacers, the answer is yes\u2014and Kenyan Olympian Faith Kipyegon is on the brink of doing it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We found that if everything went right, under a couple of different drafting scenarios, she could break the 4-minute barrier,&#8221; said co-author Shalaya Kipp, an Olympic middle-distance runner who earned her master&#8217;s degree in Kram&#8217;s lab. &#8220;It&#8217;s extremely exciting that we are now talking about, and studying, the limits of female human performance, too.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"From_%E2%80%98Breaking_2_to_%E2%80%98Breaking_4\"><\/span>From &#8216;Breaking 2&#8217; to &#8216;Breaking 4&#8217;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In 2016, Kram&#8217;s lab calculated what was required for a man to break the fabled two-hour marathon barrier.<\/p>\n<p>He and his students determined that, along with intense training, state-of-the-art shoes and an ideal course and weather conditions, drafting\u2014running behind or in front of another runner to reduce air resistance\u2014was key.<\/p>\n<p>Informed in part by their research, Nike hosted the Breaking 2 Project in May 2017 to create those conditions for Kenyan marathoner Eliud Kipchoge. Kipchoge narrowly missed his goal that day but nailed it in a similarly staged race in Vienna in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Four years later, Kram watched with interest as Kenyan runner Faith Kipyegon crushed records for the women&#8217;s 1,500 meters, the 5,000 meters and the mile\u2014 all in less than two months, while raising her daughter.<\/p>\n<p>When Kipyegon smashed the mile world record for women with a time of four minutes, 7.64 seconds, she was just over 3% away from breaking the 4-minute-mile, noted Kram. Coincidentally, when his team first started doing their research, the marathon world record holder was about 3% shy of a two-hour marathon.<\/p>\n<p>Kram and his former students, now spread out at research institutions around the world, reconvened\u2014this time to explore the limits of female human performance.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_power_of_drafting\"><\/span>The power of drafting<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Run alone, even on a still day, and air molecules bump into you as you move through them, slowing you down. Run in the shadow of a pacer or, better yet, with runners in front and back, and you use less energy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The runner in front is literally pushing the air molecules out of the way,&#8221; said Kram.<\/p>\n<p>At a 4-minute-mile pace, a runner of Kipyegon&#8217;s size must overcome a surprisingly large air resistance force\u2014about 2% of her body weight. The team previously determined that completely eliminating that force would reduce the energy required by about 12%, allowing her to run even faster.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Anyone from top elite to lower-level runners can benefit from adopting the optimal drafting formation for as much of their race as they can,&#8221; said Edson Soares da Silva, first author of the new paper.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, da Silva calculated that a 125-pound, 5-foot-7 female runner who typically runs about a 3:35-hour marathon could improve her time by as much as five minutes.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_magic_number\"><\/span>A magic number<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>For the new study, the team pored over video of <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Z54YtvvMMgo\" target=\"_blank\">Kipyegon&#8217;s record 1-mile finish<\/a> in Monaco.<\/p>\n<p>The conditions were ideal, but her pacers ran too fast at first, said Kram, letting the gap between them and her widen. By the last lap, her pacers had dropped out and she was on her own.<\/p>\n<p>Ideally, he said, one female pacer would be perfectly spaced in front, another in back, for the first half-mile; then another fresh-legged pair would step in to take their place at the half-mile point. Collectively, previous research suggests, they could cut air resistance by 76%. Using that value, the team calculated her projected finish time: Remarkably, 3:59.37\u2014the same time Bannister hit in 1954.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Inspiring_scientists_and_runners\"><\/span>Inspiring scientists and runners<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Kipp, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Mayo Clinic, stresses that their study, like many in the field, was based on previous studies that excluded women.<\/p>\n<p>The authors hope that their paper will help spark more interest in studying the physiology of female athletes and inspire interest in female track and field.<\/p>\n<p>They recently sent a copy of the paper to Kipyegon, her coaches and her sponsors at Nike, floating the idea of another staged race, similar to Breaking 2.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hopefully,&#8221; the last line of the paper reads, &#8220;Ms. Kipyegon can test our prediction on the track.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-main__more p-4\">\n<p><strong>More information:<\/strong><br \/>\n                                                    Could a female athlete run a 4-minute mile with improved aerodynamic drafting?, <i>Royal Society Open Science<\/i> (2025). <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-doi=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1098\/rsos.241564\" target=\"_blank\">DOI: 10.1098\/rsos.241564<\/a>. <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/10.1098\/rsos.241564\" target=\"_blank\">royalsocietypublishing.org\/doi\/10.1098\/rsos.241564<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"d-inline-block text-medium my-4\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProvided by<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUniversity of Colorado at Boulder<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"icon_open\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colorado.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<use href=\"https:\/\/medx.b-cdn.net\/tmpl\/v6\/img\/svg\/sprite.svg#icon_open\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/svg><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>                                        <!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>\n                                                 <strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n                                                 First female runner could soon break the 4-minute-mile barrier (2025, February 25)<br \/>\n                                                 retrieved 25 February 2025<br \/>\n                                                 from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>\/2025-02-female-runner-minute-mile-barrier.html\n                                            <\/p>\n<p>\n                                            This document is subject to copyright. 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