Today World Athletics ruled on the competitive use of Nike Vaporfly.
Actually, the opinion was about the technology of the shoes in question and not the particular model, but let’s go in order.
First of all: Vaporfly will be able to be used in international competitions (and the mind immediately goes to the upcoming Olympics in Japan).
The opinion/sentence is actually more articulated and establishes the following rules.
The law of the market
A model that is available to the public for more than 4 months prior to the competition is allowed.
At the same time, however, prototypes are not allowed. The one with which Kipchoge set the world record over the marathon distance in Vienna-also known as Alphafly-is therefore not allowed.
The only permissible deviations for race shoes may concern aesthetics (thus not affecting performance) and any modifications introduced for medical reasons (insoles or supports of various kinds).
If the WA has doubts about whether a shoe or its technology adheres to the principles of the institution itself, it can still submit it for judgment.
Limitations
However, the rule of market availability has been tempered with new limits that clearly refer to Nike Alphafly, effectively banning its use:
- The midsole cannot be thicker than 40 mm (that of the Alphafly is 51 mm)
- It is permissible to use carbon flexing plates in the midsole, even in different sections but only if they are arranged in the same plane, thus not working in parallel or overlapping (again: the Alphafly has in the midsole two overlapping plates)
- The use of an additional plate is allowed only for spiked shoes and only to accommodate the spike. On this type of shoe, however, the midsole should not exceed 30 mm.
In other words.
As WA President Sebastian Coe explained, the point of these new rules is to reasonably regulate a technical medium such as shoes without influencing or curbing technological achievements, especially when they have already been available to the public for some time (and this is the case with the Vaporfly). WA in short will intervene only when it becomes clear that the advantage given by new technologies benefits some athletes too much at the expense of others. The assumption is that because they are available on the market, any athlete can use them (okay, let’s pretend for a moment that they are not bound by contracts that force them to use only the shoes that are provided to them by the brands that sponsor them).
Finally, a working group including WA members, advisors and experts, and representatives of the running shoe manufacturing industry was established to jointly assess whether or not the use of new technologies is permissible in the future.
In conclusion
In a nutshell: the Alphafly (at least in the guise used by Kipchoge in Vienna) will not be allowed, the Vaporfly will.
However, this is not a ruling that directly favors Nike, or at least not as it may seem. Certainly Nike raised the issue indirectly, but now several manufacturers and its competitors are producing shoes with the same technology. The one that makes statistically run harder and therefore, again statistically, might make all of us run a little bit harder. In the very near future.
(Photo: Nike)