In athletics, the term techno-doping is making the rounds again. The occasion is the World Championships in Athletics last week in Eugene. The times and distances that were achieved there were not only world champions, sometimes they were hard to believe. The American Sydney McLaughlin ran the 400-meter hurdles in 50.68 seconds – her fourth world record in 390 days. One is used to such superhuman things from MacLaughlin. But not by Tobi Amusan.
The Nigerian improved her personal best by almost three tenths to 12.12 seconds in the semifinals over 100 meters hurdles, which meant a new world record. In the final she even ran six hundredths faster, but with too much wind support for an official world record.
At such times and above all such increases, doubts quickly arise. All too often justified in the history of athletics. In the case of Amusan, the suspicions of doping seem to be confirmed, but this is probably techno-doping. Athletes are increasingly getting a decisive boost from the material. So does Tobi Amusan.
She ran her fabulous world record in spikes, which are not intended for such sprint distances. Amusan ran the 100m hurdles in the Adidas Adizero Avanti shoe, a shoe designed for long-distance running. “The Adidas Adizero Avanti reduces muscle fatigue so you can pick up the pace as you sprint to the finish line in 5K and 10K races,” the manufacturer’s website says.
The fact that Amusan resorted to the model designed for long-distance was due to injury-related reasons. Earlier in the season, she suffered from chronic heel bone irritation. Adidas recommended her a shoe with more cushioning to lessen the stress on her foot. So she tried the Adizero Avanti, which has a sole thickness of 20 millimeters, which is just about permissible for this distance. The supposed emergency shoe turned out to be a stroke of luck. The bouncing effect of the shoe is higher than with the usual spikes over the sprint distances. This effect allowed Amusan to jump over the hurdles with less energy expenditure. It shouldn’t be long before the other hurdle sprinters will follow suit and compete with the same or similar models.
In athletics, there has been an amazing battle of materials among manufacturers for years. In 2017, the sporting goods giant Nike scored a coup with a model called the Vaporfly. This one had more carbon plates installed than other running shoes, and its sole was much thicker. The runners, above all marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, bounced with the shoe at top times. What was initially dismissed by the competitors as Nike marketing quickly turned into real hype about the Nike model. Because according to a large-scale study, the shoe actually brought an effective speed advantage.
A debate, led by competing sporting goods manufacturers, broke out as to whether such a shoe should be allowed. But Nike, a powerful company in the sports world, prevailed. The Vaporfly can still be worn today. The other manufacturers reacted and brought very similar models onto the market. So now the trend towards thicker soles has also arrived in the sprint area.
“My skills are not due to the spikes,” said an angry Tobi Amusan. In view of their leap in performance, this would be a reassuring justification. Otherwise, their time is hard to explain.
