Noah Lyles to Tamirat Tola … Adidas was behind the success of many of this year’s Olympic champions, from 100 metres to the Marathon … Paris 2024 was a story of radical innovation and human performance

August 22, 2024

Noah Lyles is the Olympic champion at 100m, Quincy Hall at 400m, Emmanuel Wanyonyi at 800m, Grant Holloway at 110m hurdles, and Tamirat Tola at the marathon.

What’s the secret in common behind these Olympic champions from Paris 2024?

Adidas.

You might think that running is the purest of sports, and has not changed much since the Olympic Games were revived by Baron de Coubertin in 1896. However, even the relative simplicity of racing from gun to tape has radically altered in recent years due to the rise of advanced running footwear, often called “supershoes”.

Athletics is in the midst of a high-tech innovation battle between all the leading brands, for who can create the most technically advanced shoes. And at a time when Nike’s share price fell 30% in a day, Adidas seems to be winning the battle of the super shoes.

Adidas was born from the dream, the motivation and the obsession of making the athletes the most successful they can be. This year it celebrates the brand’s 75th anniversary with its most successful Olympics of recent decades with a huge medal haul. 27 track and field medals (excluding relays), 11 more than last Olympic Games.

Supershoes, carbon fibre plates and foam midsoles

I’ve been a runner for the last 45 years (starting out as a 10 years old in my SL72s, the original version). Shoes have evolved hugely over that time. However the last 5 years have been exponential. The new levels of energy return, cushioning, and improved performance from these supershoes is quite honestly remarkable.

Although recent history says Nike launched supershoes, it was Brooks who released the first carbon fibre-plated shoe, sandwiched in midsole foam and outer rubber in 1989.

In 2019, the Nike Vaporfly shoe kicked off a storm of controversy in athletics. It became a focus for claims about whether it provided some athletes with an unfair advantage over those not equipped with the shoes. Eliud Kipchoge wore prototype Vaporfly shoes when he became the first athlete to run the marathon distance in under two hours as part of the Ineos 1:59 challenge in Vienna. Ultimately, the shoes avoided a ban just in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

So what are “supershoes” (and superspikes for track running) and how do they differ from traditional running footwear?

Initially, supershoes used a sole that saw a combination of material called a polyamide block elastomer (marketed as Pebax) together with the use of a carbon fibre plate.

At the height of the controversy, much was made of this plate, offering a trampoline-like spring effect. However, scientists now understand that it is a combination of all of the soles’ components working together that’s behind the shoes’ success. Not just in performance, but also in enabling more training and faster recovery.

This broad effect has helped break a whole raft of world records, particularly over longer distances. The shoes have improved times by roughly 1.4-2.8% or 0.6-2.2% in the men’s and women’s marathon events respectively over the last seven to eight years.

Each running shoe brand has their own designs and use different components in different ways. But the harmonious principle in the sole design is inherently the same.

Many factors are at play in improving the technical performance of supershoes. These include the thickness of the midsole and what’s been termed the “teeter-totter” effect, an upwards reaction force that passively enhances the propulsive stance of the runner. There’s also evidence against both of these ideas.

There is also evidence that supershoes improve physiological performance, reducing a runners’ oxygen consumption when compared to traditional running shoes.

Most studies focus on experienced runners so it’s plausible that a recreational runner or those of a different age could see wildly different levels of performance enhancement than the elite runners in Paris. It’s also conceivable that the placebo effect could mean that simply knowing that you are wearing an advanced shoe makes you perform better in a race, regardless of whether the shoe helps or not.

As to the shoes’ acceptability, that is ultimately decided by the sport’s stakeholders and you, the spectator. Whether they are fair or not, new technology can either prompt people to use it or provide cost barriers that reduce peoples’ participation.

Furthermore, consumers can now purchase supershoe technology themselves. Whether they really want to or are happy to do so for something that may only be effective for a few hundred miles of running before the sole materials could begin to lose their potent mechanical properties remains equally contentious.

The use of supershoes has not been unchecked or challenged. In 2020, World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport, moved to limit this technology by implementing regulations that countered what it felt was contributing to the magnitude and frequency of records being broken.

In this case, the governing body’s rules centred on limiting the sole thickness, the number and complexity of any internal rigid structures (such as the carbon fibre plates) and the prevention of shoes that were one-offs and would therefore not be accessible for the consumer to buy.

The technology continues to evolve rapidly, so perpetual vigilance will be required by the World Athletics. Ultimately, supershoes have sometimes courted controversy, but they don’t seem to be going away and will remain an important part of distance running for the foreseeable future.

More innovations at Paris 2024

Sitting in the Stade de France, watching the most incredible events – Noah Lyles winning the 100m by a hair’s width, Josh Kerr and Jacob Ingebrigtsen battling at world record pace only to be outwitted by Cole Hocker, Mondo Duplantis vaulting a world record of 6.25m as the whole stadium stayed behind to watch – I was in awe of the athletes, competition and the continued magic of the Olympics.

But the Olympic Games is also the ultimate showcase to launch new products, concepts and devices. So maybe not surprisingly the weeks leading up to Paris were packed with new launches, which were then exhibited by athletes, and in the brand houses around the French capital. Here are some which stood out for me:

Media: Intel’s AI-based Vision

Intel, an Olympic sponsor, showcased a range of AI-powered enhancements to how the sports were broadcast and analysed. With enhanced HD broadcasting and event planning tools like OnePlan’s 3D mapping, Intel is leveraging advancements made in AI, IoT, and digitalisation to shape the future of sports by integrating the overall experience with technology. At the Stade de France, the fan experience was transformed into an immersive, interactive journey, due to AI-powered innovations.

Construction: Cutting the carbon footprint by 50%

As athletes entered the Olympic Village, they would notice seven gigantic structures they surely have never seen before,  They’re called Aerophiltres. They do look like giant mushrooms, and they tower nearly six meters above the Village. The Aerophiltres are essentially clean air fountains. They capture polluted air — enough to fill nine Olympic-size swimming pools per hour — and spit out clean air. Paris 2024 limited new construction to a minimum, with 95% of venues being existing buildings or temporary structures. For instance, the Stade de France serves as the main athletics stadium, while scaffolding-based structures were erected at iconic sites like the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles. The Aquatics Centre features a wooden structure and a large solar array on its roof. Spectator seating is made from recycled plastic waste. Paris also promotes wood and low-carbon concrete for new infrastructure.

Equipment: Omius Cooling Headbands

As the Paris 2024 marathon runners headed off to Versailles, many were sporting unusual headbands with what looked like rows of apparent glass cubes. Omius technology amplifies the body’s natural cooling mechanism, keeping you cool, comfortable, and performing at your best. When water or sweat evaporates from the surface of the skin it absorbs heat and cools the body. Using thermally conductive and porous graphite, and a patented coating, the Omius technology increases the evaporative surface area of the skin by as much as 7x. This amplifies the body’s natural cooling mechanism and dramatically increases comfort and performance in hot conditions.

Nutrition: Maurten Bicarb System

Lactic acid has always been the curse of a high performance runner. Run a 400m at full effort, and your legs are drowning in lactic by the home straight. Same in any distance event. So what is the best antidote to acid? Sodium bicarbonate. Or baking powder. But a spoonful of that tastes disgusting, and will probably make you sick. The Maurten Bicarb System is an advanced sports fuel designed to help athletes push the boundaries of effort and power during high-intensity exercise. The Bicarb System contains a mixing bowl, the hydrogel component, the bicarbonate component, and access to the Bicarb Digital System.

Shoes: On’s Spray-on Shoes

Swiss running shoe brand launched a new range of shoes for the Olympics. This time it was less about the sole, and more about the manufacturing process. It’s made using spray-on technology with an automated robotic arm. The new Cloudboom Strike LS is made using what On calls LightSpray technology, whereby an automated robotic arm sprays an ultralight one-piece shoe upper in a single step, made from a recyclable thermoplastic. The upper is then bonded onto the sole unit without any glue, using thermal-fusing technology, reducing the materials required. Unlike regular footwear manufacturing, the entire LightSpray manufacturing process takes three minutes (a normal shoe takes days or even weeks to manufacture, On says).

Gaming: World Athletics launches Athletics Rush

Seb Coe, President of World Athletics, was quite shocked when last year I mentioned to him that Online Gaming is now the world’s biggest “sport”, and certainly attracting the minds and money of younger audiences. We discussed how the real world of athletics could use gaming to engage new audiences, and talent. During Paris 2024, World Athletics, in collaboration with TapNation, launched “Athletics Rush – the ultimate runner-style game that offers players the chance to earn rewards and win prizes, taking fan engagement to another level”. It takes users on a journey where they can master athletics challenges, travel through countries and compete on global leaderboards, with real prizes, and connecting to real events.

Events: Grand Slam Track

Many people have discussed how to reinvent athletics for new audiences – it’s too complicated, too slow, for many general audiences. Multi gold-medallist Michael Johnson has been one of the biggest challengers. Now he’s doing something about it, launching a new series of athletics events – taking inspiration from the worlds of tennis and motorsport. The brand new league will host four annual Slams in 2025 and has a total of $12.6m prize money across the events It will be known as “Grand Slam Track” and its main focus will be fan-focused storytelling, promotion of track’s biggest stars and undiscovered opportunities for fan engagement, sponsorship, and elite competition.

Future: AI-based Talent Spotter

Fans at the Olympic Stadium tried out a new Intel AI-powered talent spotting system that hopes to find the gold medallists of the future. Its developers aim to use a portable version of the technology to bring advanced sport science to remote areas around the world. The aim of the system is to identify the potential gold medallists of the future. Data is gathered from five tests which include activities like running, jumping, and measuring grip strength. This information is then analysed to assess a person’s power, explosiveness, endurance, reaction time, strength and agility. The results are compared with data from professional and Olympic athletes.