On the 11th day of the 2024 Paris Olympics, in the women’s 200m final of track and field at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on August 6, 2024, Gabrielle Thomas of the United States won the gold medal, and Zhu of St. Lucia won the gold medal. Julien Alfred took silver and Brittany Brown of the United States took bronze, France.
Henk Jan Dycks | Marcel Ter Bales | Defordi Images | Getty Images
At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the first three men to cross the marathon finish line all wore the same neon green shoes emblazoned with the familiar swoosh logo.
On their feet were the world’s first “super shoes,” a prototype of the Nike Zoom Vaporfly that would revolutionize running and spark years of controversy as runners used it to break records. Competitors will copy it, and running’s governing bodies will eventually create new rules that will remain in effect for this year’s race Paris Olympics.
The Vaporfly’s thick foam padding is key and completely against the norm at this point. Previously, running shoes were all designed with “flat soles” and adopted the “less is more” approach.
“If you said thick shoes were faster in 2015, you would have been laughed out of the office,” said Elliott Heath, Nike running shoe product manager.
With this year’s marathon scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Heath expects many runners to be wearing Nike’s latest and most disciplined ultra-running shoe, the Alphafly 3. running community That Dissecting each pair at launch.
After Nike ushered in a technological arms race, there were many others. Nowadays, regular runners chasing personal records in major marathons around the world wear carbon-plated super shoes from various brands.
Fiona O’Keeffe will run for Team USA in the women’s marathon on Sunday, sponsored by Puma and wearing one of the super shoes. She said she still remembers the first time she tried on the super shoes.
“It feels very bouncy, which is totally different,” O’Keefe said. “My legs feel better after a workout and I recover better. Especially when you’re training long distances, it all really adds up.”
Innovations in sports equipment create many challenges for those overseeing sports competitions, including the Olympics. 2008 NASA assisted LZR swimsuit since banned. The British have been hit Specialized jumpsuit Some say this gives their cyclists and skeleton athletes an advantage. There are plenty of other athletes who try to gain an edge, sneakily or otherwise, through their smarts.
These innovations raise a difficult question: Will technology impact our ability to appreciate humanity’s greatest achievements? Would the new record really be a record if it had the help of stretchy shoes or a lighter shirt?
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On February 22, 2021, the Nike logo appeared in a Nike store in New York City.
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Since the Vaporfly debuted in 2016, runners have break world recordincluding running a marathon in less than two hours. All were wearing various versions of the super shoe.
December 2019, The New York Times established Runners wearing Vaporflys run 4%-5% faster than runners wearing regular shoes. In a marathon, this can vary by a few minutes.
World Athletics finally set new rules ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. it put The maximum sole thickness for each sporting event ranges from 20 mm for field events to 40 mm for road events. All prototypes that were not open to the public, such as the Vaporflys in Rio, were banned from the competition.
world athletics explain It is “concerned that the integrity of the sport may be threatened by recent developments in shoemaking technology”.
These rules were then solidified when the 2021 Vienna City Marathon champion was awarded. disqualified After his shoes were found to be 1 centimeter thicker.
So what makes super shoes so good that competition regulates them? Heath said it comes down to two components: buffering and propulsion.
“Not only does the foam provide cushioning and store and return energy, it also protects the runner’s legs,” Heath explains. “When you have race flats, you’re basically asking the runner to absorb all the impact ”
Meanwhile, propulsion is generated by full-length curved carbon fiber panels.
“Plates have been in shoes for a long time. But what’s new is the Vaporfly plate shape,” Heath continued. “This curvature is specifically designed to give runners the stiffness they need… to help them take their next step.”
The goal is to make the lightest foams and sheets possible while increasing the amount of energy stored and returned, Heath said.
Customizing shoes for individual athletes is not allowed as they must be made available to other athletes, although the hefty price tags on many super shoes don’t necessarily make them readily available. Tigst Assefa wore Adidas Adios Pro Evo during the 2023 world record-breaking Berlin Marathon, retailing for $500. “Development shoes” or prototype shoes that have been tested before retail sales can be worn at competitions other than the World Championships and Olympic Games.
current regulations Rules set by World Athletics, updated since Tokyo, require shoe manufacturers to submit shoes for approval in advance. one shoe inspector On the World Athletics website you can check whether a specific shoe is allowed for a specific event.
At the same time, spikes in track and field competitions have different rules because the technology meets different needs. Sprinters, for example, need more stability and containment when running, Heath said.
While super shoes have changed the face of professional running, the sport requires more than just a sturdy pair of running shoes. Especially if you’re running more than 26 miles.
For O’Keeffe, the spiritual element was the most important.
“You can train your body all you want,” she said, “but if you show up on race day and you’re not interested in competing, it doesn’t matter how healthy you are.”
