Due to the coronavirus crisis, BuenaVida is not in kiosks. Download it free here
–
–
Of to run In leathers like in the Olympic Games of Antiquity to do it with three carbon plates underfoot: in just over a couple of millennia, the sport has been regulated to ensure fairness among all competitors. Also to accommodate technological innovations in clothing and sports gadgets. Many curdle. Others enjoy glittering triumphs, followed by denunciations, by illegitimates. Some are even banned. Where is the limit?
The International Olympic Committee only assumes equal opportunities. They are the international federations of each sport those that bless certain advances and stop the feet of others if they consider that they grant an excessive advantage to an athlete or a team. It is what is known as technological doping, a thread that unites engineers and athletes and confronts authorities and brands (because behind each advance there is usually a company willing to recover the investment in R&D, in the form of millionaire sales).
Running shoes that make you tired 8% less
For years, the queen of the Olympic Games was the 100-meter dash. Today is the marathon. With a prominent name: Eliud Kipchoge, to whom Nike organized a measure – the INEOS 1:59 Challenge (last October 12 in Vienna) -, where the Kenyan became the first human to lose two hours (1 : 59: 40) to cover those 42,195 meters. Although the brand is not homologated for formal reasons, it showed that it was possible. At its feet, a prototype with a striking oversized sole: the Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next%. Inside, three carbon plates embedded in a thick layer of foam that improved reactivity and reduced vibrations with each step. Everything patented to the millimeter. His competitors cried out to heaven.
In January the International Athletics Federation (now called World Athletics) spoke: from that moment, only shoes with a single carbon plate and sole thickness of 40 millimeters or less will be admitted: “As we are in the Olympic year and many athletes they have been prepared with them, we cannot prohibit them. ” The sentence of Sebastian Coe, its president, meant for many a tailored suit for Nike and its star runners.
“The ones Kipchoge wore [que nunca llegarán al mercado] they exceeded 50 mm in the heel (somewhere you had to keep the three plates and the foam), “says Javier Moro, head of material for the magazine Runner. With the new regulations, Nike will market an adapted version with regulatory measures, a single carbon plate and two air chambers in the forefoot. All these elements, added to the curvature at the tip, provide the runner with energy savings of up to 8%. “And that in a marathon, where fatigue plays against, is a huge advantage,” explains Moro.
In statements to Reuters, Professor Yannis Pitsiladis, an expert in Sports Sciences at the University of Brighton and, paradoxically, father of the ideas that sustained Nike’s race to lose the two-hour marathon, branded it directly as technological doping, “which could do that, in the future, the competition would not be between athletes, but between the major sports brands, “he laments.
With the law in hand, attorney Ben Williams, an intellectual property and technology expert at the international law firm Withersworldwide, sees the resolution as a victory for Nike. And all thanks to a legal hole. “The new regulation focuses on the technical elements of the sole and not on the maximum permissible level of energy return, which remains unregulated. In other words, it gives developers free rein to offer alternatives by combining the permitted elements with new ones And so, the records for Nike will continue to fall. And with them, the controversy, “resolves the lawyer.
Bicycles that run more, pedaling the same
The temptation to go like a bullet in cycling is not new. The shortcomings by the International Cycling Union (UCI) to bring order to the avalanche of inventions, either. In the 1990s, the Scottish Graeme Obree made a track bike so small that it forced him to pedal hunched over. An uncomfortable posture to die, but more aerodynamic and efficient than those of its competitors: the drag coefficient (wind resistance) was 0.17 (that of the others was 0.20). This translated into about 2.5 km / h more speed. If it had not been banned, today it would continue taking 1.5 km / h to current bicycles.
To avoid further excesses, the regulation specifies the dimensions, distances between pedals, seat and handlebars and even the weight: 6.8 kilograms, with which experts disagree. “It is a 2000 norm. It was imposed to guarantee safety. In these 20 years, very safe bicycles have been developed with less heavy materials: for 3,000 euros you buy a light model in your favorite store, but with which Alejandro Valverde does not he could run the Tour de France “, explains Jaime Menéndez de Luarca, a graduate in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and a triathlon coach. “The weight slows you down. But above all, it penalizes the smallest cyclists by sheer proportion. This goes against the principle of fairness between athletes. It is an outdated norm that should be revised now.
Such updates do not always prove technology right. In 1994, Miguel Indurain broke the hour record (53 km in one) with a prototype of his Espada, designed by Pinarello to the measure of Navarre: a single piece, weighing 7.2 kilograms and two fiber lenticular wheels carbon (the rear, greater than the front). Two years later, Chris Boardman snatched the record (56.37 km in one hour). “It was of little use to them. In 2000, the UCI canceled both marks obtained with modified bicycles to make them more aerodynamic. The first record with the new standards, also from Boardman, fell to 49.4 kilometers. That is, 7 less” .
In view of the disaster in the results, in 2014 the UCI opened the hand to certain technical modifications, causing the brands to duel until they reached the current 55.08 kilometers of the Belgian Victor Campenaerts (2019). His bike, made by Ridley, had a carbon fiber handlebar with molds to the size of the rider’s arms. Certain areas of the frame applied F-Surface Plus technology, a surface similar to the alveoli of a golf ball that reduces friction caused by the wind. The Vittoria tires, made ad hoc, had a tread that minimized friction with the ground to improve speed …
Helmets that earn you a second per kilometer
The UCI’s zeal to avoid technological tricks ranges from sniffing around for camouflaged engines (which are there) to measuring the length of socks. Surprising as it may seem, this last rule, in force since 2019, specifies that they must be left half-round to avoid that cyclists are more aerodynamic than their opponents. During the Yorkshire World Championship, some judges, meter in hand, measured legs and cyclists. If the socks were missed, they had to be rolled up.
“The UCI also determines that you cannot compete with prototypes. All material must be for sale, either in stores or on the manufacturer’s website, so that some do not have an advantage over others. But made the law, made the trap: the Brands figure out so that only their sponsors can carry their new products by putting them up for sale at astronomical prices. For the London Olympics, the British team developed a very advanced helmet that earned you a second per kilometer. In a men’s 44 time trial kilometers are many seconds. ” Menéndez de Luarca tried to buy it: “It cost 9,528 pounds from then (about 10,900 euros).” The bicycle it shot up to more than 100,000 pounds (114,000 euros, and that without counting the devaluation of the pound by Brexit). For the triathlete, it is doping from a law firm. “They look for the legal hole to cheat.”
These are just some of the technological innovations that have come to clothing and gadgets. No sport is spared: controversial swimsuits that float, triathlon jumpsuits that repel water, tennis rackets made from NASA materials, ski waxes that scratch seconds in the snow, and even soccer balls with better aerodynamics. Who would have thought that sphericals had room for improvement? We will tell you in the new number of BUENAVIDA, downloadable for free in pdf at this link
You can follow Buenavida on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or subscribe here to the Newsletter.
– .
