Skinsuits and 'magic' nodes: how to smash a mile record

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon is attempting to take eight seconds off her fastest time and go under four minutes

- Sean Ingle

Eight seconds. It's barely enough time for most people to tie their shoelaces. But when you are Faith Kipyegon, and you are trying to become the first woman to shatter the four-minute mile barrier, those eight seconds constitute a chasm.

But now we know how the 31-year-old Kenyan, who set the mile world record of 4min 7.64sec in 2023, intends to close the gap and emulate Sir Roger Bannister's historic feat.

Yesterday her sponsor Nike revealed that when Kipyegon makes her sub-four attempt in Paris on 26 June, she will be wearing a special aerodynamic skinsuit with "3D-printed aeronodes", along with new super spikes, which are even lighter and more propulsive.

The skinsuit draws on similar technology used by British Cycling and British Skeleton when they dominated the Summer and Winter Olympics between 2008 and 2018.

Crucially, the aeronodes are able to create a "turbulence" effect designed to reduce the amount of wind resistance acting on the body when Kipyegon runs.

"The magic with the aeronodes on the suit and leg sleeves is that it creates a controlled turbulence area," said Lisa Gibson of Nike's innovation lab. "It splits the air in front of Faith and creates smaller eddies behind her to reduce drag."