Muniz-Pardos Borja, Sutehall Shaun, Angeloudis Konstantinos, Guppy Fergus M, Bosch Andrew, Pitsiladis Yannis
GENUD Research Group, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, Department of Physiatry and Nursing, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain.
Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Sports Med. 2021 Mar;51(3):371-378. doi: 10.1007/s40279-020-01420-7. Epub 2021 Jan 13.
Every women's and men's world records from 5 km to the marathon has been broken since the introduction of carbon fibre plate (CFP) shoes in 2016. This step-wise increase in performance coincides with recent advancements in shoe technology that increase the elastic properties of the shoe thereby reducing the energy cost of running. The latest CFP shoes are acknowledged to increase running economy by more than 4%, corresponding to a greater than 2% improvement in performance/run time. The recently modified rules governing competition shoes for elite athletes, announced by World Athletics, that includes sole thickness must not exceed 40 mm and must not contain more than one rigid embedded plate, appear contrary to the true essence and credibility of sport as access to this performance-defining technology becomes the primary differentiator of sporting performance in elite athletes. This is a particular problem in sports such as athletics where the primary sponsor of the athlete is very often a footwear manufacturing company. The postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics provides a unique opportunity for reflection by the world of sport and time to commission an independent review to evaluate the impact of technology on the integrity of sporting competition. A potential solution to solve this issue can involve the reduction of the stack height of a shoe to 20 mm. This simple and practical solution would prevent shoe technology from having too large an impact on the energy cost of running and, therefore, determining the performance outcome.
自2016年引入碳纤维板（CFP）跑鞋以来，从5公里到马拉松的男女世界纪录均已被打破。这种成绩的逐步提升与鞋类技术的最新进展相吻合，这些进展提高了鞋子的弹性，从而降低了跑步的能量消耗。最新的CFP跑鞋被认为能将跑步经济性提高4%以上，相当于每次跑步的成绩/时间提高2%以上。世界田径组织宣布的针对精英运动员比赛用鞋的最新规定，包括鞋底厚度不得超过40毫米且不得包含超过一块刚性嵌入板，这似乎与体育的真正本质和可信度背道而驰，因为获得这种决定成绩的技术成为精英运动员体育表现的主要区分因素。在田径等运动项目中，这是一个特别的问题，因为运动员的主要赞助商往往是鞋类制造公司。2020年夏季奥运会的推迟为体育界提供了一个独特的反思机会，也有时间委托进行一次独立审查，以评估技术对体育比赛公正性的影响。解决这个问题的一个潜在办法可以是将鞋子的堆叠高度降低到20毫米。这个简单而实用的解决方案将防止鞋类技术对跑步的能量消耗产生过大影响，从而决定比赛成绩。
