Is 3:56 the new 4:00 in women's 1500m?

Add to that throwing away their $250 road super shoes for workouts..

I don't race in Dragonflys, and I set my PBs in Victory Elites.

Good for you. Your 4:20 is awesome.

There are zero studies that show this.

How come so many of you "super shoe" people are now changing your argument to account for recovery? If you want to say the shoes help people recover more, so they can train harder, fine. But that's a completely different argument than saying putting the shoes on instantly make everyone 1-second per lap faster.

If that was the case, where are all the 3:27 people? There's been dozens of ~3:31 people for 25-years. How come nobody runs 3:27 despite super shoes and plenty of chances every year.

I hate to be a party pooper, but when I look at the numbers, I don't see any evidence that that other technology has undergone "continuous" development.

1) If you look at the number of women runing under 4:00 -- the OP's measure -- it is surprisingly flat until 2019, when there's an obvious inflection.

2) If you look at the progression of the W1500 record, it takes some big jumps in the late 60s into the 70s, and then is basically flat.

Honestly, I'm surprised to (not) see this, and would love to hear any suggestions.

1976 3:56.0 Kazankina
1980 3:55.0 Kazankina
1980 3:52.5 Kazankina
1993 3:50.5 Qu
2015 3:50.0 Dibaba
2023 3:49.1 Kipyegon
2024 3:49.0 Kipyegon

PS Clearly, looking at two sets of numbers does not prove anything. Someone needs to slice and dice the numbers from lots of other races before we will know for sure what is going on.

Drugs have long been present in sport but are also subject to continuous development. It is a science. It isn't, however, a uniform prescription that can be bought off a shelf. It is a clandestine practice without strict rules or conventions. Formulas vary for athletes, both to achieve a desired effect but also to avoid detection. Doping methods will have changed since the virtual free-for-all of the 80's at a near industrial level because antidoping has increased since then. Doping is now typically conducted through micro-dosing to avoid detection. But doping is still winning. It is a massive industry world-wide. Other technologies - like shoes and tracks - aside, that have contributed to performance gains, doping will be a consistent feature in the levels of performance achievable today and their improvements.

Women's endurance events have been terrible. Ridiculously passive. That's the primary thing that has changed, far beyond the shoes. The only event that is dramatically benefitted by the shoes is 400 hurdles. Bol's own coach did a study indicating that the shoes are worth nearly 3 centimeters per stride in that event. That reality enables more aggressive stride patterns that weren't available to former greats like Edwin Moses, who would have used 12 almost all the way around.

You finally have female runners who aren't afraid to push barriers over the first half of the race. That is what has changed at 1500+ and it is long overdue. That 2010ish era was disgraceful in the 1500, when Uceny and Aregawi would lead the world lists despite not risking anything.

Dibaba ran some very fast times but they were always in time trial set up races. Nobody thought it applied to everyday or championship races. The big breakthrough was when Hassan took advantage of maternity Kipyegon and ran 3:53 in Doha 2019. That forced Kipyegon to find that level. And once she began running away from packs by half the home stretch did anyone seriously believe it would remain that way? Ethiopia alone wasn't going to sit back and pretend none of their own were capable.

Kipyegon looking over her shoulder at Hull several times is symbolic of where that event stands. Kipyegon realizes her age of 30 is still viable toward elite times at shorter distances. She needs to take care of business in Paris then get out of there.