Mail Online

Are the super shoes distorting history?

Scientists claim athletes benefit by almost 10%

By Robert Dineen

ATHLETICS chiefs are under pressure to outlaw controversial ‘super-shoes’ after the sport’s top scientist admitted the rules governing them need to be revamped.

Olympic records are expected to tumble at Tokyo 2020, with competitors using hi-tech footwear that has led to record books being rewritten at an astonishing rate.

Usain Bolt last week joined the outcry against the governing body for permitting the shoe technology, with the sprint legend describing the situation as ‘laughable’.

Now Stephane Bermon, director of health and science at World Athletics, has admitted that the global ruling body needs to update its rules to keep up with developments.

Bermon suggested that the current regulations, which simply limit the depth of the sole and the number of hi-tech stiff ‘plates’ within it, are not sophisticated enough.

Figures within World Athletics have previously avoided giving any indication as to whether the rules will need to be changed once a moratorium on doing so ends after the Games. ‘After the moratorium we will very likely have new rules governing these shoes,’ said Bermon. ‘In the longer term, we will probably have new rules based on different characteristics other than a simple measurement.

‘It seems what is mediating the highest performance- enhancing effect is likely the stiff plate. Regulating this would mean — and this is something we are likely going to move — just regulating on measuring t he shoes and t he number of plates is not enough. We should move to a system that is based on energy return.’

Elite road running has been transformed since Nike released its VaporFly shoe four years ago, with athletes producing a slew of remarkable performances.

They included the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge breaking the fabled two-hour marathon barrier wearing a pair, while his compatriot Brigid Kosgei beat Paula Radcliffe’s 16-year-old marathon world record by 81 seconds a day later.

The introduction of track spikes using similar technology has had a similarly transformative effect and will be widely used in Tokyo.

Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei set world records over 5,000m and 10,000m wearing a pair, while in June Shelly- Ann Fraser- Pryce clocked 10.63 seconds in the 100m, second only to Florence GriffithJoyner.

Fraser-Pryce last week argued that too much signifance has been assigned to the shoe, saying: ‘You can give the spike to everyone in the world and it doesn’t mean they will run the same time as you or even better. It requires work.’ But Bolt believes they are unfairly enhancing performance, saying: ‘It’s weird and unfair for a lot of athletes because I know that in the past shoe companies actually tried and the governing body said “No, you can’t change the spikes”, so to know that now they are actually doing it, it’s laughable.’

Scientists are uncertain why the s hoes bestow s uch enormous benefits but it is understood the key technology is the stiff plate, often made of carbon, and the ultra-light, springy foam.

Along with an upper in the road shoe that is more curved than previous designs, it is felt that these qualities significantly reduce the amount of energy t he runner expends.

World Athletics has capped the depth of the sole at 40mm to limit the effect of the foam and insisted on a maximum of one plate per shoe. Critics have said those rules do not go far enough. Especially when some athletes find much less benefit from the shoes compared to others and s o me enjoy no improvement at all. The reasons for that phenomenon has also so far baffled the scientists.

‘ The same shoe gives you a massive variability among different athletes — even greater than 10 per cent [improvement in performance] in some cases,’ says Professor Yannis Pitsiladis, who sits on the science and medical commission of t he I nternational Olympic Committee.

‘How you respond to the shoe can determine if you’re going to be an Olympian or watch it on TV. You know who is going to win and who can qualify [ f or t he Games]. Athletes have qualified because they had access to a super shoe.

And many who were not running in these shoes didn’t qualify.’

Pitsiladis compares the shoes to a form of ‘technological doping’ and wants the regulations to be changed so that the shoes cannot determine the outcome of a race.

‘One solution is to minimise the stack [sole] height, while allowing the shoe companies to innovate in a smaller area, minimising t he i mpact o f a ny per f o r manceenhancing mechanisms such as the carbon-fibre plate,’ he says.

‘Let the best companies come up with half a per cent [improvement in performance], say, or one per cent. But not a situation where you have improvements in running economy of even greater than seven per cent.’

Experts fear that the working group World Athletics has put together to advise the ruling body on the regulations post-Tokyo will not go far enough, especially when representatives of six sports brands are sitting on it.

‘The moratorium was also because we h a d t o d i s c u s s wi t h the manufacturers,’ said Bermon. ‘It’s very important that you respect the manufacturers. They have spent a lot of time and money designing t hese shoes. We have to t ake decisions that do not put them into difficult economic circumstances.’

The working group also includes representatives from the governing body itself, its athletes commission, the ‘sporting goods industry’ and a scientist. World Athletics said: ‘The group is examining the research around shoe technology in order to set parameters, with the aim of achieving the right balance between innovation, competitive advantage, universality and availability.’

Tokyo 2020

en-gb

2021-07-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://mailonline.pressreader.com/article/284193698773738

dmg media (UK)