Middle-distance runner Josh Kerr set a world record for the fastest mile ever this past weekend and now he’s speaking out about the experience.
The 28-year-old British Olympic medalist won the 1 Mile Men’s Final during the 2026 Wanda Diamond League’s Novuna London Athletics Meet at London Stadium on Saturday (July 18) in London, England.
Josh ran the race in 3:42.66, setting a new world record. The previous record was set in 1999 by Hicham El Guerrouj, who ran a mile in 3:43.13.
Josh Kerr lost his hearing during the race
Josh said that he temporarily lost his hearing with about 110 meters remaining in the race.
“It happened in the first 300 meters at the (Paris 2024) Olympics, so for it to occur then, in one of the hardest races I’d ever run, it cannot be physical,” he said. “It is mental and emotional. A lot of it has to do with the atmosphere and occasion.”
“It’s a very calming sensation, a trigger,” he told The Atlantic. “As soon as it happens, it is my body telling me everything I don’t need is shutting off, and I’m going to get to the line as quickly as possible.”
“When the pressure is on, I show up,” he added. “I have had harder times mentally when running events that do not have the eyeballs that this did. I use people’s pressure as a privilege, and I’m in no rush for the emotion of what I have done to settle in.”
Josh Kerr had been training for this exact time
Josh called his training plan “Project 222,” because that’s the amount of seconds he needed to run the mile in to beat the record.
“It was never going to be an easy record,” he said. “We discussed it so many times.”
“The sessions were not hard, but the week-to-week was very difficult. The structure of getting to bed and eating on time, nutrition, meetings — it’s all very mundane,” Josh said.
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