As the Olympics draw to an end, South Africans will forever remember Akani Simbine the most. In him many will celebrate the triumphs and the potential. The moment that almost got him the medal will keep him in memories long after the Olympics 2024.
Many will wonder what if he had one small advantage. I wondered, what if he had a super shoe that could have given him an added advantage? We now know that some athletes have used super shoes at least in some races.
Super shoes often include PEBA (polyether block amide) foam, a bouncier, lighter foam with a better energy return. Shoes with PEBA foam blends can sometimes feel like they’re propelling you forward. Leading sport brands have released super shoes.
Nike released the first carbon plate shoe, the Vaporfly 4%, in 2017, it was arguably the biggest breakthrough in distance-running technology since the waffle racers that helped launch the brand in the 1970s. With its high foam stacks and a carbon-fibre plate running through the midsole, the Vaporfly promised runners a 4% increase in performance over regular running shoes, reported the New York Times.
Supershoes boast a variety of features designed to lower the energetic cost of running, allowing athletes to go faster and help them endure the strain of a long-distance race.The most crucial feature are foams used to construct parts of the sole. These absorb the impact of the foot and return energy from each foot strike back to the runner.
Some use other features like the orange “air pod” in the Nike Alphafly 3, for added bounce. These rigid parts and foams are combined with wafer-thin mesh uppers to create shoes that are increasingly ultralight: the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 (top) released in 2023 weighs just 4.9 ounces (measured in the men’s size 9). Lighter shoes also reduce the energy expended with each stride – enabling runners to move at a given pace with less effort. In the sport sector there’s a major debate about the use of super shoes.
Some have argued that they’ve changed the sport. Some claim it has become hard to compare new records fairly with old ones, and that the steady stream of footwear innovation has brought unending speculation over which brand’s shoes are best, with critics saying that places too much emphasis on gear at the expense of runners’ ability.
The MIT Review has indicated that laboratory research also suggests that some runners get a greater boost from the technology than others, depending on their biomechanics.
It also indicates that Ross Tucker, a South African sport scientist and outspoken supershoe critic has argued that these differences make it effectively impossible to “evaluate performances between different athletes independent of this nagging doubt over what the shoes do”.
I believe that athletes should adopt technology to boost their performance. It is one thing to rely on natural abilities when everyone is backed by natural abilities, but something else when others are using technology to gain an advantage. To level the playing field there’s a need to accept the technology reality and to use it to one’s advantage. This is true of life in general.
Competition on any aspect of life will be fuelled by technology. The more we resist adoption of technology, the more we will lose by a small margin. It is my hope that going forward sport will empower athletes with all the tech they need. We all need to find ways of using technology effectively to gain an advantage.
Wesley Diphoko is a technology analyst. He has been working at the intersection of media and technology as the Editor-In-Chief of FastCompany (SA) magazine.
BUSINESS REPORT