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

If you also tabulated the number under 3:56 in a second column, then you would have made an interesting and possibly convincing argument. Try again.

So shoes are the reason we went from 14 sub-4:00 women in 2021 and 16 in 2022 to 25 in 2023 and 34 in 2024? Even though the shoes have been widely available and in use for that entire time?

Not to mention from 2017 to 2019 it went from 6 -> 9 -> 13 women, and from 2007 to 2009 it went from 1 -> 2 -> 7, and 2011 randomly had 0...those were because of shoes too?

No.

Yes, definitely is. Thanks for the stats. Interesting.

Clearly is. Drugs or no drugs, 4 mins isn’t what it was just a few years back. It’s clearly dropped that 4-5 secs, so why are you disputing it? Out of curiosity..

OP is right. The number of women under 3:56 in recent years match the number of women under 4:00 before 2019.

2019: 4
2020*: 0
2021: 4
2022: 3
2023: 9
2024: 10

Before that very few women ran under 3:56.

I think breaking 4:00 today is still a world class mark. As it’s rarified air and that’s a very small percentage of athletes that can hit it. But the times are undoubtedly quicker now.

The corollary to this is that line for world class was probably a few ticks slower than 4:00 previously? I think we could make that argument.

Not quite.

The shoes being used today are not the same shoes being used in 2021 and 2022.

They keep improving the tech.

2026 shoes will likely be even faster. Not sure how, but also never expected super shoes back when all the rage was 'minimalist shoes.'

Wow - wonder what happened right around ‘20-‘21? Complete mystery. We’ll never know.

Even more-so, there were 13 sub 4's in 2019 (before super shoes) and then 14 in'21 and 16 in '22 (very similar numbers). So three seasons into super shoes and the numbers are the same, yet now we're giving 4-5 seconds in a 1500 to the shoes? Really??? What happened, do they take time before beginning to work, like needing to be broken in for several years?

Seems pretty obvious that there are a lot more factors then shoe tech.

In the Paris Diamond League, the women's 1500 had a total of 13-finishers. 10 of those women pr'd, 2 more just missed their pr, and the last place (Cory McGee) pr'd by 2-seconds last week. All of these women have been professionals for years and have used the shoes in each of last 4-seasons.

You're telling me it's the shoes that made everyone run faster? Really?? C'mon now, we have to be smarter than this.

The Covid shot made every woman 4 seconds faster

Depends on how short and springy the track is.

You're correct. It will mostly be drugs. My view is that I don't see it as "progress", which was the implication, as though it is quite normal for times to keep falling dramatically in a short period of time. Look at the Hull thread. Or Kipyegon.

Yes. Athletes are able to train faster and recover faster. And shoes continue to improve. Those things take several years to maximize performance. Every maker has introduced super spikes over the past 2 years. All of the athletes now wear them. UA, Brooks, NB, Adidas, Asics, all had athletes running the 1500 in old shoes just 2-3 years ago.

Always the "shoes" and the "spikes" here, as though the other technology, that is developed continuously, has somehow disappeared overnight.

Super spikes came out in 2020, and heavily used in 2021. The 2024 spikes must be even more innovative since the only way people run faster is because of what they wear on their feet!

Obviously sarcasm. As you can see, the event started getting way better even before everyone wore new spikes in 2021. The total number of sub 4s by 5 year increments were:

2001-2005: 24

2006-2010: 21

2011-2015: 27 (even with ZERO in 2011 there were still more in the five years)

2016-2020: 41 (even with only 4 taking place in 2020 because of covid)

So the numbers were already skyrocketing before the new spikes. It's not the spikes.

Every study done shows about 1 second per lap. Sorry that you deny science. I guess all of those scientists at Nike are idiots.

Athletics Kenya started drug testing?