PuraVida Sports

By Victoria Kaigai

When Faith Kipyegon steps onto the track at the Stade Sebastian Charlety in Paris to run the mile tonight, she will be chasing more than a world record. She will be joining a rare lineage of athletes whose races have redefined the boundaries of both sport and society.

In 1936, Jesse Owens — a Black American sprinter — won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, directly undermining Nazi propaganda and exposing the fallacy of racial superiority through sheer brilliance on the track.

In 2000, Cathy Freeman — an Aboriginal Australian — lit the Olympic flame, then won gold in the 400m final draped in both the Australian and Aboriginal flags, turning a single lap into a moment of visibility and vindication for generations of Indigenous Australians.

In 2019, Eliud Kipchoge broke the two-hour marathon barrier during the INEOS 1:59 Challenge — a meticulously planned race that showed what’s possible when science, belief, and systems are built to serve humanity’s ambition.

And now, in 2025, Faith returns to one of the world’s most iconic stadiums — a venue that has hosted World Cup finals, political protests, and national reckonings. 

Tonight, the Charlety becomes the stage for something quieter yet deeply significant: a woman of colour, an African, a mother, and the greatest middle-distance runner of her time — reclaiming a distance that history once denied women, and doing so with courage and grace.

The Mile That Refused to Disappear
The mile is one of sport’s most poetic and political distances — four laps that exist somewhere between sprint and strategy. 

Once revered as the ultimate test for men, it was long side-lined for women. It does not even feature in the Olympicprogramme. 

The women’s mile became niche — something in the shadows.

That changed when Faith ran 4:07.64 in Monaco. 

She reignited interest in a forgotten distance and made it her own. 

When asked why she took on the challenge, Faith simply replied: “I thought — why not?”

Progress on Paper, Gaps in Practice

Faith’s presence on this track reflects how far women’s athletics has come. 

Paris 2024 marked a historic milestone — the first Olympic Games to achieve full gender parity, with 5,250 women and 5,250 men among the 10,500 athletes. 

Athletics events at the Stade de France mirrored that balance, featuring 23 medal events each for men and women — a tangible reflection of the International Olympic Committee (IOCs’) long-standing equity goals.

Yet the broader picture remains uneven:

• Women’s sports receive just 4–10% of global media coverage; in Africa, often under 1%.

• 68% of global sports marketing spend still goes to men’s sports.

• Only 6% of sports science research focuses exclusively on women.

• Until 2014, elite female runners had no shoes designed specifically for them.

We’re still expecting women to perform in systems built for men — instead of building systems designed around women.

Motherhood, misunderstood — and Mastered

Motherhood, however, remains one of the most poorly understood realities in elite female sports. 

For years, maternity policies across the athletics world were inconsistent, and many athletes faced pressure to return to competition before they were ready — physically or emotionally. 

A 2022 study found that over half of elite female athletes receive no formal postpartum support, and access to tailored recovery care remains limited.

Thankfully, some brands have responded. 

Companies like Nike have evolved their approach, updating their policies to better support athletes during pregnancy and after childbirth. 

Faith’s own journey — giving birth in 2018, returning to reclaim Olympic gold in 2021, and breaking two world records in 2023 — is a case study in what’s possible when elite women are backed with care, respect, and long-term vision. Her comeback and post-maternity career offer an extraordinary blueprint — made possible by professional coaching, emotional grounding, and a support ecosystem that embraced every part of her identity: woman, mother, millennial and champion.

Turning applause into action
Faith’s bold run has shown young girls all over the worldwhat they can become when they push themselves — and when the world does not push back. 

But inspiration alone is not enough. 

We cannot keep expecting women to defy odds without changing the odds themselves.  

If we want more women running this fast, this long, and this freely, the systems around them must be designed for their reality — with real financial commitment and long-term vision.

That means establishing biomechanical testing and sports science labs tailored to female athletes — not retrofitted around male data. 

It calls for recovery protocols for postpartum athletes, including physios, hormonal experts, and mental health support. 

It includes high-altitude training centres with built-in childcare. It demands gear and apparel built from the ground up for the female body. 

And it requires female-led coaching pipelines and long-term investment models that honour a woman’s full athletic lifecycle — not only her peak.

It’s encouraging to see brands like Athlos — founded by Alexis Ohanian, husband of Serena Williams — stepping up to recognise women’s excellence in sport. 

Faith’s $100,000 bonus is a powerful signal. 

But what if Athlos, alongside other like-minded investors, went even further?

Imagine an Athlos–Nike Kipyegon High Performance Centre: a world-class facility open to African girls, offering elite-level training, sports science, and long-term support?

Not a one-off cheque, but a sustained commitment to reshaping the future of women’s athletics on the continent. 

This is about making this moment count — turning recognition into lasting infrastructure and investment.

That would be a worthy legacy for Faith — not just of one race, but of a lifetime of redefining limits. Faith has already laid the tracks. 

As the Ghanaian proverb reminds us: “The footsteps of the future are found in the tracks we leave today.”