When tennis rackets went from wood to metal, he said, “I bet they were having the same discussion.” “It’s quite a fun ethical sports technology area that we’re heading into,” said Ross Tucker, an exercise physiologist from South Africa who writes the Science of Sport, a blog that is widely followed in running circles.
But at what point is the line of inequitable advantage crossed? No one seems to know precisely.
“This is a game changer, in the sense that if the shoe companies get patents and these shoes go onto the market, and they’re in wide use, it does make you wonder if it’ll be a level playing field if people can use these advantages,” Hirsch said.Īll shoes are considered to enhance performance. It would be impossible to check the shoes of hundreds or thousands of runners before each race, he said. George Hirsch, the chairman of New York Road Runners, which organizes the New York City Marathon and more than 50 other races, said everything from elite races to age-group competitions could be affected by the latest shoe technology. And track and field wrestled with the issue of prosthetic blades worn by the South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius. Swimming allowed record-setting, full-body suits, then banned them after the 2008 Beijing Olympics because they gave an unfair advantage in buoyancy and speed. Many sports have struggled with the answer. Where to draw the line of permissible assistance?
But they have also spurred yet another debate about the advance of technology and the gray area where innovation meets extremely vague rules about what is considered unfair performance enhancement for the feet. The latest shoe designs have produced fast times and impressive results in international races. Later, in the fall, they were worn by the winners of major marathons in Berlin, Chicago and New York. The shoes cushioned the feet of all three medalists in the men’s marathon at the Rio Olympics last summer. If the color scheme suggested frivolity, race results did not. You half expected the insoles to smell of rum and coconut. The shoes came in the colors of a tropical drink, lime and orange and pink, as if the logo ought to be an umbrella instead of a Nike swoosh.
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