By: Moon Liu
Throughout the world, runners are beginning to rapidly surpass their previous records in athletics, and once legendary feats are now occurring in local races, shocking the public.
Racers have begun to demonstrate comparatively massive gains in record time, like when Faith Kipgeyon of Kenya set a new world record for the women’s one-mile run by five entire seconds. In sprint races like this one, gains of mere tenths of a second are considered impressive, while even just one can be unheard of.
The secret? Super-shoes, sports scientists say. These shoes give runners a sizable boost while they run due to their rebound energy and unique midsole plate. Runners throughout the world have adopted these shoes as customary, wearing the shoes during races to give them an advantage and help them win.
However, sports scientists also argue that the shoes give runners another advantage: long-term practice. When runners get used to the feeling of being in these shoes, they train the way they run and run better than those who didn’t. Scientists argue that practicing in these supercharged shoes causes the body to adapt, giving not only a technical but a physical advantage when running.
In 2016, the running community was shocked by a new shoe released by Nike: the Zoom Vaporfly 4%. Boasting a tremendous jump in racer performance for those who wore it, World Athletics, the governing body of running competitions, forbid competitors from wearing shoes with a sole size too high. “It is not our job to regulate the entire sports shoe market, but it is our duty to preserve the integrity of elite competition by ensuring that the shoes worn by elite athletes in competition do not offer any unfair assistance or advantage,” said Sebastian Coe, World Athletics president.
Today, however, the practice has been normalized and hundreds of thousands of runners wear these shoes. Almost all major shoe companies have super shoes in their lineup now, showing a significant change in the culture of running since Nike revolutionized the practice of wearing such footwear.
Some sports scientists argue that this technology causes more harm than good by injuring athletes and causing severe diseases such as navicular bone injury. “I’ve seen super-shoe injuries in runners at all levels — high school runners, recreational runners and elite athletes,” Amol Saxena, an expert in the study of running injuries, said. “The shoes can put atypical stresses on the bones and soft-tissue structures.”
Some runners also believe that training with hard shoes on helps them run faster and for longer, following the “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” mentality. A recent study by California State University, East Bay showed that although runners who ran with hard-soled shoes endured more pain, they performed better at races and had greater endurance than those who practiced with super shoes.