The Shoes of The Elites at Tokyo 2020
- Milosz Lech
- Aug 10, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 21, 2023
In this blog entry, I will be mentioning some of the greatest sporting feats made by top-level athletes, including Karsten Warholm, Alex Yee, Yuto Horigome and Sydney McLaughlin, who got their hands on gold medals during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and I will highlight the shoes that helped them achieve greatness.
Starting off with possibly the most innovative and technological footwear of track running history, we have PUMA’s evoSPEED Tokyo Future Nitro Faster+ which have earned the “super shoes” title from critics of the sports world.
These shoes were worn by Karsten Warholm during the Men’s 400-metre Hurdles event in which the Norwegian athlete had won gold with a new crazy world record time of 45.94 seconds. This PUMA model features the following elements:
· A synthetic leather upper and mid-foot strap for a snug, locked-in feel at all times
· Lightweight, breathable sockliner
· A full-length carbon fibre plate for more bite on the track
· Eight lightweight, permanent 7mm pins
· Heel crash pad
· Engineered rubber
· Stunning Spectra Colourway design scheme, with rainbow electroplating and pearlescent panels
Critics against “super shoes” alike, which were first developed by Nike, say their technology-forward features are the equivalent of mechanical doping. On the other side of the ongoing argument are the supporters who see great potential for the footwear to advance and develop running as a whole. A researcher of biomechanics and sport performance at the University of Michigan and an expert in running shoe technology, Geoff Burns, says that this new generation of shoes is generally being accepted as part of the sport moving forward. He says, "We definitely don't hear of people calling for the shoes to be banned so much anymore”.
Brian Metzler, an American journalist, believes the increasing acceptance of the “super shoes” is largely because competing brands have caught up to Nike and there is now a greater understanding of how the shoe technology works.
PUMA’s team had connected with the engineers of Mercedes AGM Petronas F1 and with the input from the athletes and coaches, the collaboration developed “the best spikes PUMA has ever made”, as said by Bjørn Gulden (PUMA CEO). Even with the engineered carbon plate that transforms the track shoe into something magical, it only weighs 135 grams- as light as a feather- perfect for the track athlete.
“What’s important for me is that I run very much on my forefoot”, said Karsten. “This is why you want the carbon fiber plate to push you in the right direction, so when you land you want the plate to bend in the right way and return the energy. When you sprint, you have a very short amount of contact time with the ground, only 1 second, so you want the plate to answer very quickly. Therefore, I want the carbon to be stiff enough that I get the return before I leave the ground. That helps me run even faster”.
Here we have Alex Yee, Team GB’s young medal-winning Triathlon athlete. The 23-year-old from Brockley, South London picked up a silver medal from the Men’s Triathlon event which involves the standard mix of three distinct sports: swimming, cycling, and running. For the Olympics, the standard is a 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and finally a 10km run, and, with the 27-degree heat, the talent and hard work of Yee pushed him to finish on the podium.
Just five days later, Alex along with the three others from Team GB’s triathlon team had competed in the first-ever mixed relay triathlon at the Olympics and the combined talent from the group had brought yet another gold medal back home to Great Britain. The final leg of this event, which Yee had responsibility for, was a great success- managing to swim 300m, cycle 6.8km and run 2km in just 20 minutes and 28 seconds.
Alex Yee’s choice of footwear for his Olympic events was the New Balance Fuelcell RC Elite v2, a shoe “designed to give you a competitive edge on race day”. This gold-level shoe is lightweight and even features a full-length carbon fibre plate, a major talking point for footwear throughout this Olympics. The energy return and propulsion of carbon fibre plates in shoes are simply too impressive and positively impactful on athletes nowadays that going without the plates could be a noticeable hinderance on their performance. In fact, the carbon fibre plate trend has become so prominent that brands are finding ways to show them off on their shoes like New Balance have done on this model.
The Breathable Mesh Knit Upper of the Fuelcell RC Elite v2 keeps your foot cool by allowing heat, vapour and moisture to escape, whilst encouraging cool air to circulate. Added comfort comes from the soft padding around the heel collar and the wider toe box which provides natural flexion of the toes. The nitrogen-infused foam which makes the Fuelcuell midsole delivers a minimum of 39% more rebound than Revlite, another midsole compound introduced by New Balance.
The midsole of this shoe absorbs the shock and negative impact forces on heel strike which, in return, reduces stress and strain on the foot muscles and joints. Not only is the rubber compound outsole light in weight, but it also provides great traction and durability.
On the skateboard with a gold medal around his neck, Yuto Horigome is the 22-year-old skater who showed us why the sport finally appeared in the Olympics. Not having to travel very far for this year’s sporting event, Tokyo-born Yuto had made history by becoming the first medalist in this new Olympic sport.
To earn his way into the final, Horigome made it to sixth place in the morning qualifying round with a total of 33.75 points while having to endure the intense 35°C of Tokyo- potentially the hottest Olympics yet.
Judges in this sport will award points based on the difficulty of the trick, originality, height of jump, and other aspects. The skaters are allowed to make mistakes during their 45-second run- the overall performance is what matters.
The gold medal comfortably welcomed itself to Yuto who had gathered 37.18 points in total from the two runs and five tricks rounds. In hopes of becoming the best skateboarder in the world, Horigome had went to California in 2016 but his interest for the sport first came from his taxi-driver father Ryota. The Olympic-level skateboarder says: “When I first found out that Tokyo was chosen as a venue for the Olympics, it was so far in the future, I didn’t know at the time if I would be able to participate. The fact that I am able to be here makes me so happy”.
The shoes of choice for Yuto were the Nike SB Zoom Stefan Janoski RM, coming with a durable suede upper and lightweight, flexible sole. The shoe “minimises break-in time so you can maximise skate days” and are built “for daily use” -Nike.
24 hours after the male 400m hurdles took place, the females had to turn on their own engines and create an equally thrilling race. USA athlete, Sydney McLaughlin, won gold and broke a world record- her own previous record that is. In just 51.46 seconds, Sydney had cleared all of the hurdles and her opponents and at the end of it all, she had a lot of nice things to say about the Tokyo track: “You can feel the difference”, she said. “A lot of people talk about the shoes, but I think it’s one of those tracks that gives you that energy right back, pushes you and propels you forward”.
The track designers had put small pockets of air in the lower layer of the track to give the athletes an element of shock absorption while providing them with greater energy return. The engineers of the Mondo company that had created the Tokyo track refer to the running surface as having a “trampoline effect” which is believed to provide around one to two per cent performance advantage. This, along with the super spikes, is why many people are now arguing that these most recent Tokyo Games are incomparable to any previous Olympics.
Both McLaughlin and bronze medallist, Bol, wore Spikes from New Balance. Currently, these shoes are unreleased and cannot be found on the New Balance website but are most likely a prototype version of the brand’s SD-X style.
Thank you very much for reading the blog and please feel free to leave any comments and feedback for me to read!
Which shoes from the list are your favourites? Which athlete had the greatest victory? Let's start a conversation below!
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