SUPER SHOES

About:

• Even at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, athletes have delivered extreme performances that have been partly attributed to these advanced shoes, as well as a high-tech track that they ran on.
  
  
• Critics, however, allege that using the super footwear, first developed by the American multinational Nike and now adopted by several competitors, amounts to ‘technological doping’.
  
  
• The Vaporfly series of shoes by Nike, lab tests have shown subsequently, helps an athlete save four per cent more energy than a competitor who does not wear them.
  
  
• Later, track spikes — shoes that have spikes underneath to give runners a grip — also became more technologically advanced.
  
  
• Unlike traditional spikes, which have tried to lessen the amount of midsole foam in order to decrease weight and energy absorption, super spikes have a better foam that is able to return as much as 80 to 90 per cent of energy to the athlete– thus acting like a spring in every step.
  
  
• The carbon-fibre plate in super footwear is believed to allow athletes a more effective push-off.
  
  
• World Athletics, the governing body for track and field sports, approves “super shoes”, but with regulations on foam thickness, as well as other parameters.