Mason Joel, Starc Laura, Morin Jean-Benoit, McClelland Emily L, Zech Astrid
Department of Human Movement Science and Exercise Physiology, Institute for Sport Science, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Strathfield, NSW, Australia.
Front Sports Act Living. 2024 May 14;6:1386627. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1386627. eCollection 2024.
Recent improvements in elite running performances across all distances have been largely attributed to the introduction of advanced footwear technology (AFT), which features a curved and stiff plate working synergistically with a new generation of midsole foams demonstrating enhanced resilience and compliance. These recent improvements appear to be considerably more pronounced in women's events, highlighted by improvements in road racing world records by an average of 3.7% (range: 2.6%-5.2%) compared to mean progressions of 1.5% (range: 1.3%-1.9%) in the same men's events. Although there is a growing body of research investigating the mechanisms underpinning running performance enhancements derived from AFT, there remains no explanation for potential sex-based differences in their benefits. We overview the currently available evidence and highlight why the recent direction of AFT research provides a barrier to progress by focusing primarily on male athletes. We subsequently provide our perspective on why women may be benefiting from the new generation of shoes more than men, suggest potential mechanisms leading to hypotheses that need to be further investigated in upcoming studies, and finally propose that factors outside of footwear innovation may have concurrently driven the recently observed performance evolutions.
近期，所有距离的精英跑步成绩都有了显著提高，这在很大程度上归功于先进鞋类技术（AFT）的引入。该技术的特点是有一块弯曲且坚硬的板，它与新一代中底泡沫协同工作，展现出更强的弹性和顺应性。这些近期的进步在女子赛事中似乎更为显著，公路赛跑世界纪录的提高平均达到了3.7%（范围：2.6%-5.2%），而在同样的男子赛事中平均进步幅度为1.5%（范围：1.3%-1.9%）。尽管越来越多的研究在探究AFT提升跑步成绩的机制，但对于其益处中潜在的性别差异仍没有解释。我们概述了目前可用的证据，并强调了为什么AFT研究目前的方向主要聚焦于男性运动员，从而为进展设置了障碍。随后，我们阐述了为什么女性可能比男性从新一代鞋子中受益更多的观点，提出了一些潜在机制，这些机制引发了有待在后续研究中进一步探究的假设，最后提出鞋类创新之外的因素可能同时推动了近期观察到的成绩进步。
