World Athletics new raft measure after shoe saga

Nike Vaporfly Next% shoes. [photo courtesy]

Thicknesses across all athletic shoes in track and field events will be required to stack height of 20mm from 1 November 2024.

World Athletics has revised the shoe regulations that are set to take effect from Monday 1 January 2022 and include a raft of changes with some set to be implemented later to give manufacturers ample time to adjust.

World Athletics also said athletic shoes must not contain any embedded "sensing or intelligent" technology now or in the future.

The development comes after Kipchoge ran under two hours using Alphafly Next% shoes in 2019, which resemble platform shoes and are said to improve the running economy by between 5% and 8%.

The measures passed by the Council include the deletion of the transitional provisions inserted in 2020 and 2021, leaving just an enabling rule at Technical rule.

A definition of ‘applicable competitions’ to make the scope of events the rule and regulations apply to clear and to avoid them being applied to amateur club, school or college or even masters level competitions.

Clarification on which types of customisations are permissible with prior approval from World Athletics. This is to allow adaptations for individual athletes on medical and safety grounds.

The simplification on sole thicknesses for all athletic shoes in track and field events will be simplified to a stack height of 20mm from Nov. 1, 2024.

According to World Athletics, the timeline was agreed to give shoe manufacturers sufficient notice after they had made a "significant investment" in shoes with a sole thickness between 20-25mm.

Current regulations allow for shoes to have a maximum thickness between 20-25mm depending on the event while it can go up to 40mm for road races.

"There has been an enormous amount of background work and meetings held both internally and externally on our shoe rules since the inception of the Working Group on Athletic Shoes in June 2020," said World Athletics' Chief Executive Jon Ridgeon.

He noted that there is still more to do, but thanked the Working Group, the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry and the shoe companies for their openness and collaboration in finding solutions.

Furthermore the world Athletics said a more flexible compliance process is needed for athletic shoes to make checking compliance more practical and efficient depending on the nature of the event.

He noted that greater emphasis will be placed on conducting post-race spot checks through the introduction of shoe control procedures and a shoe control officer role.

Referees’ powers have been made clearer and World Athletics CEO or their nominee has been given the authority to act (or refer the matter to the AIU) where post-competition breaches are identified.

That athletic shoes must not contain any embedded ‘sensing or intelligent’ technology now or in the future. This does not apply to the use of heart rate, speed distance monitors etc.

Minor word changes and phrasing as part of a general tidying up of the language in the rules and regulations.

“There has been an enormous amount of background work and meetings held both internally and externally on our shoe rules since the inception of the Working Group on Athletic Shoes in June 2020, following on from the work in 2019 of its predecessor, the Assistance Review Group,” said Ridgeon.

Shoe technology has been in the spotlight since records started to tumble, with the governing body trying to draw a line between innovation and giving athletes an unfair advantage.

Norwegian 400 metres hurdler Karsten Warholm shaved 0.76 of a second from his own world record at this year's Tokyo Olympics -- a massive margin in a one-lap race -- and warned that shoe technology was hurting athletes' credibility.

"What I said was misunderstood in some way, because I had one comment about it after the race and it just blew up and that wasn't my plan at all," the 25-year-old said during an interview.

"To be honest I don't know if that shoe (Nike) is the best shoe. My shoe (Puma) is maybe just as good, but that's not what it is about, necessarily. I haven't done science.

"When somebody does a great performance now, everybody will question if it's the shoe, and that is the credibility problem," said Karsten.