Supershoe times are making a mockery of the sport

Ah yes, we should just go back to barefoot running and cinder tracks, innovation is bad for the sport and Nike should be ashamed of themselves

The first sentence is wrong improvements are nowhere near PEDs and may be comparable to past technological jumps. The improvement on the track in my opinion greatly exaggerated, people thought they would have as big of an affect as the road shoes. The second per lap advantage is obviously wrong and the advantage probably isn't even half a second per lap.

The shoes do however provide an obvious advantage and should be restricted.

USADAWADA wrote:

The first sentence is wrong improvements are nowhere near PEDs and may be comparable to past technological jumps. The improvement on the track in my opinion greatly exaggerated, people thought they would have as big of an affect as the road shoes. The second per lap advantage is obviously wrong and the advantage probably isn't even half a second per lap.

The shoes do however provide an obvious advantage and should be restricted.

Name a drug that you can instantly improve up to 60sec in a 10k and up to 5sec in mile as soon as you take it (like slipping on supershoes).

EPO but the shoes don't provide a 60 sec advantage or even a 30 sec advantage. They also don't provide a 4 sec advantage in the mile.

czascp wrote:

Ah yes, we should just go back to barefoot running and cinder tracks, innovation is bad for the sport and Nike should be ashamed of themselves

Get real. We haven’t been running barefoot for 1000s of years. Like he said, shoes should be there to protect the feet and prevent slipping. Shoe technology before super shoes did just that. #1 time in the women’s 10,000 two years ago would be 7th on the list this year and we’re not even done. The undeserved records are gonna keep rolling in and the shoe apologists will bring up “covid training,” evolution (lol), other nonsense. They have to look the other way because their prs depend on it.

USADAWADA wrote:

EPO but the shoes don't provide a 60 sec advantage or even a 30 sec advantage. They also don't provide a 4 sec advantage in the mile.

EPO does not provide instant improvement (takes weeks).

Yes, preliminary research has indicated that supershoes provide on average 4-5sec per mile and upto 60sec over 10km performance improvement dependent on the athlete's spring mass system efficency.

Props to Nike for raising the bar once again.

Agreeance wrote:

The current supershoe times are making a mockery of the sport. The improvements are far greater than even PEDs and unparallel to any previous training and technological progressions.

The onus should be on World Athletics (particularly technical commitee) for being so ill informed before formulating the current shoe rules (or succumbing to shoe manufacturer pressure?).

The purpose of footwear should be soley to "protect the foot" and "prevent the athlete from slipping", not to provide a unfair mechanical advantage.

While I admit that the shoes are definitely leading to faster times, the only thing making a mockery of running is all this b!tching by these butthurt geezers who can't accept an ounce of change in this sport.

Agree, it's ridiculous what's happening. WR feats came few and far between a few years back, now they come within days off each other.

Seb Coe the little runt has destroyed the sport.

Wada has failed

It should be exciting to see a Sheila run a 29:01 WR but it is hard to be excited about all these artificial WRs that are happening nearly every week now. I found Almaz Ayana's 29:17 much more exciting because it was back in 2016 where you couldn't just bounce to a WR. It is literally like with cars. I just don't get excited anymore when I see that a supercar maker releases a new model. Sure they are great but it is much more exciting to look back at the 80s when Ferrari broke the 200mph barrier with the F40, even if the F40 can be beaten by an electric car today.

Agreeance wrote:

The current supershoe times are making a mockery of the sport. The improvements are far greater than even PEDs and unparallel to any previous training and technological progressions.

The onus should be on World Athletics (particularly technical commitee) for being so ill informed before formulating the current shoe rules (or succumbing to shoe manufacturer pressure?).

The purpose of footwear should be soley to "protect the foot" and "prevent the athlete from slipping", not to provide a unfair mechanical advantage.

Exactly, all the spikes on track should be banned as they are super shoes that improves times disproportionately. Anyone running in them needs a star against their times to reflect technology doping.

Innovation is what we do, if everyone is running in similar shoes why is everyone getting worried about it?

It’s not as if running has ever been fair, as different people or groups have had access to better facilities, training methods, recovery methods, diet etc

Why are we not complaining that one running group gets daily massages vs another which is weekly? Or that one group is in a hilly area and another is flat? Or another group is at altitude and the other is in tropics.

What happened when two distance runners one 6’3” runner with large feet vs a 5,7” runner with small feet, who is being advantaged/disadvantaged with shoe technology, what technology would level the playing field?

Is this more, i think I’m better than someone else but they better me, it’s the shoes.

USADAWADA wrote:

EPO but the shoes don't provide a 60 sec advantage or even a 30 sec advantage. They also don't provide a 4 sec advantage in the mile.

To EPO add testosterone, IGF-1, HGH, clenbuterol, meldonium, the full WADA list, and any number of about a hundred performance enhancing agents currently masked to avoid detection.

I agree.

Takes the excitement away from fast times.

Spikes provide grip and protection against slippage, so they comply with the purpose of footwear.

move on wrote:

Agreeance wrote:

The current supershoe times are making a mockery of the sport. The improvements are far greater than even PEDs and unparallel to any previous training and technological progressions.

The onus should be on World Athletics (particularly technical commitee) for being so ill informed before formulating the current shoe rules (or succumbing to shoe manufacturer pressure?).

The purpose of footwear should be soley to "protect the foot" and "prevent the athlete from slipping", not to provide a unfair mechanical advantage.

While I admit that the shoes are definitely leading to faster times, the only thing making a mockery of running is all this b!tching by these butthurt geezers who can't accept an ounce of change in this sport.

It’s no problem. I just take 20 seconds off my 15 year old 10k pr. I’m now a 28:40 guy and that’s what I’ve been telling people (they don’t really care anyway). Hey, if runners today get and instant, undeserved 20-second pr why can’t I?

Now, I wonder what I’d have run with a few cycles of epo (lol)? Hey, technology! Am I right.

Banana Bread wrote:

It should be exciting to see a Sheila run a 29:01 WR but it is hard to be excited about all these artificial WRs that are happening nearly every week now. I found Almaz Ayana's 29:17 much more exciting because it was back in 2016 where you couldn't just bounce to a WR. It is literally like with cars. I just don't get excited anymore when I see that a supercar maker releases a new model. Sure they are great but it is much more exciting to look back at the 80s when Ferrari broke the 200mph barrier with the F40, even if the F40 can be beaten by an electric car today.

I am guessing by all the cavalry that you are Ozzy.

Yes the shoes help a lot but how fast would a 14:00/29:00 sub elite male run with the super shoes?

What about ‘Monners’ - (Moneghetti) your boy, and the super shoes? As a masters runner would he be able to run 29 minutes?

Typo: “I am guessing by all the cavalry that you are Ozzy.”

Correction: “ I am guessing by your vocabulary that you are Australian“

Yeah agree mostly. The improvement is more like 30s at 10k and slimmer the shorter distance (and thus higher speed). Still, the rules pre the 2015-16 rule change was just fine, now we have allowed mechanical doping. They are really fun to run in but add a huge non-human component in the performance. Before anyone goes on about modern tracks, they of course help performance a lot but they were a practical necessity compared to old cinder tracks. Since the 80's the preconditions for performance was relatively similar until 2016.