So here is a question - what constitutes a "super spike"? Seriously? A spike with a cushioning pod in the front of it? A spike with cushioning? A spike with a Carbon fiber plate?
Because I hate to break this to you all, but none of this is new.
Honestly these Olympics are really showing that the whole "super spike" panic/furor/fervor/controversy is utter nonsense. It's understandable in a sport which has been largely devoid of any unique product in decades, but I think we have gone long enough now through the panic stage and are seeing enough evidence that it's just that - panic and mis/total lack of information
Karsten Warholm isn't wearing a super spike. He's wearing a super lightweight spike that has a carbon fiber plate. The function of the carbon fiber plate is extreme stiffness at a very light weight. That is it. There is no "spring pod", no favorable "geometry" (aka leaf spring) - nothing. It's a stiff lightweight shoe that is probably comparable to similar lightweight stiff shoes of the past such as the adidas Prime SP (a lightweight - sub 100g spike with high stiffness)
Rai Benjamin is wearing a sprint spike that has a cushioning element in the front of it. A zoom air bag. It's as much a spring as a chunk of foam. Rai gets a benefit of a cushioned FF and a proprioceptive benefit of not feeling like he is not pounding the track every step - but the cost is that his spike probably weighs 20-30g more than Warholms. Again very simple and nothing "super".
Speed is determined by how much force you put into the ground and how much the ground returns to you. That is it - it's that simple. That's your hint as to why we are seeing such great performances especially in the sprint events. The "ground" in this case is the new Mondo track WS which is incredibly elastic. The energy return from this surface is off the charts - that's why we are seeing great performances from athletes wearing ALL types of spikes ranging from lightweight super stiff, to slightly heavier well cushioned. This is the track surface
https://www.mondoworldwide.com/na/en/sport/track-and-field/mondotrack-ws/
Brands have done a great job with their product. The best thing they did was keep their mouths shut and just let followers of the sport create their own uniformed "super spike" narrative and be up in arms about it. Why? Because of threads like this and 300 or so other threads on this topic that have been on this messageboard the last 12 months, not to mention other social media platforms and sports commentators with no real product knowledge (like Tim Hutchings spouting off during live commentary). It's the best form of marketing - the type you don't even have to do yourself.