Nike makes shoes that help people run too fast, which can be banned at the Olympics

Sports shoe companies are always tempting people to try their products with mythical ads like ” Buy these shoes now to run faster! Jump higher!”, And have Nike seems to have really done that, except that nothing is too fast as well. Athletes participating in the upcoming Olympics may be banned from wearing “Vaporfly 4%” shoes of Nike!

What is this shoe attractive?

4% Nike Vaporfly is made of advanced foam combined with a carbon fiber sole to restore 4% of energy from one step to the next. According to a test supervised by the New York Times, an athlete wearing the popular version of Vaporfly 4% ran 4% to 5% faster than an athlete wearing a pair of regular running shoes. In particular, Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge brought 4% Vaporfly and broke the record for the first 2-hour marathon in October last year. After that, athlete Brigid Kosgei also wore similar shoes and broke the marathon record for women the next day.

And now, according to the London Times, 4% Vaporfly will be banned at the end of the year by World Athletics – the international organization responsible for deciding which products athletes are allowed to wear in tournaments around the globe. now on. The Guardian, however, is skeptical of this claim, citing sources asserting a comprehensive ban is unlikely. Instead, the sheet says there will be certain limits to the carbon sole technology introduced in a statement later this January.

What exactly is going on? When asked about this issue, Nike declined to comment, nor did World Athletics. However, the International Olympics Commission confirms that the ” rules and regulations” of running belong to the jurisdiction of World Athletics. In other words, if Vaporfly 4% is banned by World Athletics, these shoes may not be used at future Olympics. Therefore, this decision applies to both athletes and global sports fans.

In the past, there was a precedent for banning athletes from using wearable technology. In 2008, Speedo launched a full body swimsuit called LZR. This swimsuit will help optimize the athlete’s body to reduce friction, while keeping the air inside so they better float on the water. The suit was widely used at the Beijing Olympics, with 98% of the swimming medals going to LZR athletes, including super-fish Michael Phelps. LZR is more than a new swimsuit. It was a record-breaking “tool” – which was subsequently banned from all international swimming competitions in 2009. Even Phelps agreed that the ban was a right decision.

It doesn’t matter how much you wear Vaporfly or LZR, because we are not world-class athletes who always try to push their bodies to the theoretical maximum in their a tournament that even a few hundred seconds is enough to turn legends into forgotten people and vice versa. In 2013, when then-Nike CEO Mark Parker spoke at an event in Beaverton, Oregon, before introducing the latest Flyknit technology – in which a shoe would be woven so that it would fit well into the foot. like a sock – he spoke enthusiastically about what inspired Nike engineers and designers to work every day: ” natural enhancement” – the human body has something biologically, and how to enhance it with technology. ” We use innovation to serve human potential, not to question human limitations. Innovation is the antidote to human limitations.”

If anything was proven by Eliud Kipchoge carrying Vaporfly or Michael Phelps carrying LZR, then it was Parker – now replaced by John Donahoe – that was right. And is the purpose of the competition is to evaluate the personal achievement of each athlete, or the great technological achievements of mankind? The answer depends on the future of sport.

Reference: FastCompany