When did male elite runners begin shaving their legs?

That is great if it is true, does anyone have any science that can back that up? I am fairly hairy and I would love to increase any cooling effect this might have.

I began shaving my legs when I had to get extensive ART on them from various injuries. One session of getting my hair ripped out for 30 minutes straight was more than enough to convince me.

Regarding an above post, competitive cyclists do crash quite a bit (anyone watching the Tour de France????)

I crashed 4 weeks ago and even with shaved legs suffered a decent amount of road rash... I can't imagine how bad it would have been otherwise (plus it was easier to clean for sure..)

I'd say:

for cyclists/swimmers its 50-50 vanity/function

for triathletes its 70/30

for runners its 95/5

broken cyclist wrote:

I'd say:

for cyclists/swimmers its 50-50 vanity/function

for triathletes its 70/30

for runners its 95/5

Hold on... Since tri guys do both swimming AND biking, would their % of function be highest?

I don't shave, not do I like tri people, but I would at least expect them to shave for function having 2 sports where it is valid.

RITZ DOES IT!

http://images.rodale.com/rw_communityblogs/images/ritzenhein_dathan1nyc06.jpg

Boom.

break it up wrote:

I never noticed elite runners shaving their legs until 2001 when I ran a US champs roadrace. But thanks for posting probably the greatest finsish line photo of all-time for the sport. Viren out kicking the kickers, Quax and Dixon in total agony and Hildebrand diving to steal the Bronze.

Can anyone post a picture of any of these guys that clearly shows they have leg hair? Some quick googling didn't work for me.

oh please wrote:

That's the same excuse cyclists and tri-guys use, though when queried, most can't even remember the last time they crashed. It's a vanity thing, plain and simple.

I bike a lot for commuting now that the weather is nice in the summer. I don't shave (trim with a #2), but typically skin something pretty good once every few months.

Every person posting a reason OTHER THAN VANITY or FOLLOWING THE CROWD on why they shave their legs is lying to themselves. Either being purposely dishonest, or they've been taken in by BS.

1) easier to clean cuts when shaved?? Pretty much BS. I have very hairy calves, have had cuts on them, and never found hair to be some issue for cleaning the cuts. Get real, one doesn't have hair as thick as their head on their legs. And often if one scrapes their legs, the hair gets rubbed off too. This is silly. And really, how often are people getting huge gashes on their legs?

2) massage. Again, BS, I've gotten plenty of very deep massages and never once noticed ANY difference between massage on my hairy legs or my hairless back.

3) Resistance? Extremely negligible, even in water for swimmers

4) cooling effect?? Again, unless you literally have leg hair as thick as the hair on your head (which no one does), it won't make a difference. If this really mattered so much, you wouldn't see a single runner with hair on his head.

So it is vanity and trying to fit in with the other "guys" you train with or see on the roads/trails. It's like the women who convince themselves that racing in their bra and panties is a "performance" thing. Too funny.

So if you shave your legs it is due to vanity because you think it makes your legs look sexier, or you are trying to fit in with others. Now really there is nothing too wrong with being vain or wanting to belong, because we all are guilty of those things at times. But let's not add dishonesty or stupidity to our faults!

long dong silver wrote:

Can anyone post a picture of any of these guys that clearly shows they have leg hair? Some quick googling didn't work for me.

So Al Gore invents the internet and now we use it for ... trying to confirm which 70s distance runners had leg hair? Ay yi yi.

It is a metrosexual thing. There is a definite blurring of the lines now between male and female.

If you are a trail runner and haven't fallen, you aren't running fast enough. I go down on average about once a race. I agree that shaving legs is good to help with cuts and wounds from falling, or being cut by a tree or bush briar bush.That being said, I personally don't shave my legs anymore for trail running because I don't like feeling grass, sticks, etc. directly touching my legs

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Mud Man wrote:

Never heard of distance runners shaving their legs; although, I do it as a trail runner. It's just a lot easier to clean wounds and avoid infection without the hair.

I used to run up and down a mountain every weekend and never had one wound or infection, what are you playing at?

Assuming you don't include slight scrathes!

Real men have hairy balls, legs, chest, back, and a beard.

Slow college runners in the mid 2000s did it

ho-mal-mo wrote:

If you are a trail runner and haven't fallen, you aren't running fast enough. I go down on average about once a race.

This is patently false. I've won more trail races than I can count, and I've fallen in only one of them. Check your footwear and work on your balance.

Sorry, you're not pushing yourself still, or running enough challenging routes/distances then (I agree if you are suggesting you don't need to fall _every_ race though, that does seem too often). I can remember Sage falling on one of his races not that long ago, so it's not like it's bad runners who fall.

DisagreeWithThat wrote:

(I agree if you are suggesting you don't need to fall _every_ race though, that does seem too often)

That's exactly what I'm suggesting. Sometimes you'll catch a root or have a really muddy day or what have you, but to average one fall per race is excessive. Falls eventually happen to everyone; however, if one is falling that often, there is something else going on. Bad footwear or poor proprioception would be my guesses.

A big part of staying upright when trail racing, beyond just balance and footwear, is knowing where you can run fast and where you can't. Why bomb down a technical hill with a loose surface or muddy switchbacks and risk falling when you can play it safe and make up time somewhere else on the course? Think about it like this. Over the course of an entire race, which is faster: going a little slower through certain sections and staying on your feet or running faster than conditions allow, falling, and then losing a few seconds on the ground and perhaps minutes by limping to the finish?

Sir Lance-alot wrote:

2) massage. Again, BS, I've gotten plenty of very deep massages and never once noticed ANY difference between massage on my hairy legs or my hairless back.

you obviously just don't have very hairy legs.

I would have to shave them if I was to ever to get another leg massage

though, to a person in the distance, if I take off my trousers it probably looks like I'm wearing another pair underneath

Curious how many people on here shave their face? And why? I think if you hate on guys that shave their legs yet you shave your face then you're a hypocrite.

A bunch of homos