2024 OCTOBER ISSUE
SUPER SNEAKERS AT THE
PARIS OLYMPICS
Written by Andrew Sia
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From the Desk of the Publisher
We continue to feature the Paris Olympics although it was closed already on August 11. I believed that everyone was enjoying it, except there was a sabotage on July 26, hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, that brought several high-speed rail lines to a halt. This sabotage could have brought by those Islamist terrorist groups, far-left terrorists or adversaries such as Russia or Iran.
Anyway, we were relieved as the games went on uneventfully, except some complains from here and there.
There was an estimate of 10,500 athletes participated in the 2024 Paris Olympics and it was the first Olympics to have equal number of male and female athletes participated in 329 events in 32 sports.
We look forward to the 2028 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, or better known as Los Angeles 2028, scheduled to take place on July 14-30, 2028.
With this writeup we brought our sports shoes that are worn by every elite athlete. We will see the continuous improvements of their designs, both aesthetic and technical, and will bring out the dynamism of those athletes. We believe that the world can be a better place if we would only compete in the Olympic Games.
While the world watch was watching the different sports competitions at the Paris Olympics, behind the scene the sports shoes brands were competing the latest footwear technology. This was already the case in 2014, when Nike was experimenting with their thick-soled shoes, supplemented with a carbon-fiber plate to improve pliancy and energy responsiveness. In 2018 Berlin marathon, Nike-sponsored runner Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya won with the record of 2:01:39 slashing one minute 22 seconds off the previous world record and he was wearing Nike Vaporfly.
in 2019, Kenyan Brigid Kosgei, a woman runner won the 2019 Chicago marathon in 2:14:04 wearing Vaporfly, cut 21 seconds off a record that had stood for 16 years.
Before the Nike Vaporfly came out in 2017, only 19 women had run the marathon in less than 2 hours 19 minutes. In 2023, 19 women ran less than 2:20 races. At the 2023 Berlin marathon, Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia ran in special Adidas shoes in 2:11:53 knocking more than two minutes off the record time.
World Athletics, the global governing body introduced the rule in 2020, limiting rules such as sole thickness, and requiring most footwear in elite competition to be available for sale to the public a month before being used in competition events.
Nike was the first company to introduce air pockets in performance running footwear with track spikes at the 2019 World Athletics Championships. Since then Nike has continued to research for designs that allows for running fast over long distances to fight off muscle fatigue and pain. And last year in the Chicago marathon Kelvin Kiptum from Kenya, won the marathon in 2:00:35 breaking the men’s record wearing Nike’s Alphafly 3.
Adidas made shoes to last less mileage and most of their running shoes are assembled by hand. The shoes are emphasizing in three main areas—the sole, the carbon fiber to fill up the body of the shoes, and the lightness of the shoes. The sole should absorb the downward force with enough spring to return energy to the runner. The carbon fiber should help to propel the runner forward, Finally the weight has to be as light as possible and help to reduce the wearer’s fatigue.
Nike and Adidas are not the only “super shoes” and you can also count Asics, New Balance, On, Puma, Saucony and Under Armour have all developed competitive models with carbon fiber and spring-like foam cushioning.
Sport shoes companies are working with elite athletes and everyday runners in countries across the world to develop shoes all for the purpose of establishing the next world record.
This is where the athletics, the various revenues were hosted and this included marathon as well during the Paris Olympics. The winner for the men’s marathon was Tamirat Tola from Ethiopia at 2:06:26, and the women was Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands at 2:22:55 and won the gold medal.
Both male and female championship won a 50,000 euro prize.
There were 10,714 runners participated at the race.