Shoe 👟 technology has widened the gap between East African road runners and the rest of the world

15 years ago the first 2:03 marathon was ran. Since then many 2:03s were ran, including many in "ordinary" shoes. And a very few sub 2:03s have also been ran. Far fewer than the ordinary 2:03's.

Why didn't "super" shoes work for all the 2:03 types? Why only just a few of them?

The fact you all hate because you know it's true is, shaving another couple minutes off the marathon WR is to be expected after 15 years. Shoes have nothing to do with it. Absolutely nothing. As with spikes, the record setters wear the new ones, prototypes, whatever because their sponsors adorn them like a billboard. Fools and their money, you'll never believe it, can't handle it. Even knowing your kicks look and sound ridiculous, you still have to believe because otherwise you have to deal with being hustled.

^ You may have a point. Sub 2:03 runners are still exceedingly rare. You can count them on one hand.

East African dominance of the marathon is incredibly similar to the dominance of the US in Football (NFL).

Nope. Doping has.

If the likes of Nike are designing super shoes for doped up Kenyans like Kipchoge amd Kiptum, it's no surprise they are running crazy times.

At least there is some hope.

athleticsillustrated.com

Anti-doping lab to set up in Eldoret for much-needed out-of-competition testing

Athleticsillustrated

Anti-doping lab to set up in Eldoret for much-needed out-of-competition testing

Link:athleticsillustrated.com/anti-doping-l...

And make all of the kids run 10km to school and stop letting them ride the bus or in a car, also switch to the metric system.

In the past 4 years only Kipchoge and Kiptum have run faster than Kimetto's world record a decade ago. The top runner a decade ago setting the world record would still be a heavy favorite to win a global medal. There aren't tons of people running those times today, we just have heavy outliers in Kiptum and Kipchoge. A 2:03/2:04 runner is still a real contender to win a global medal or podium spot at WMM races. A 2:04 guy between the years 2009-2013 is a lot like a 2:03 guy from 2019-2023. So times are about a minute faster now. And in 1999-2003 to be that type of guy only took a 2:06. So times improved two minutes from roughly 2002 to 2012, and only 1 minute faster from 2012 to 2022. I guess the shoe improvements from 2002 to 2012 were a lot more of an impact than super shoes.

The gap is caused by the fact that there is far greater quality depth in Ethiopia and Kenya than Western countries so that the talented group in the West is exhausted on the track and only the third tier guys go to the roads until they are washed up on the track. Ethiopia and Kenya produce about 3-4 guys at a similar level to the Grant Fishers of the world on the track and then develop their other guys not quite at that level for the roads. Shoes aren't the difference. Training groups, altitude, soft surfaces, and drugs are the difference.

It's not the shoes, which are available everywhere. What could it be??? 🧐

gee almost like it's based on percentage improvement over native ability

and not bringing everyone up to the same level playing field

who could have possibly predicted that

but imagine the next generation of foams for the next olympic cycle

things are going to start looking absolutely impossible when women start running 60 minute halfs

(now imagine the OQ standards next olympic cycle)

Have you looked at east african legs vs european/american?

Easily many pounds less, all that moving weight reduction adds up.

Now the super-shoes make their leg extension as good as possible without requiring the rest of the human development to have that naturally.

Kind of like an exoskeleton to underdeveloped legs.

Rupp has thin legs but east-africans are next level.

Some of the east-african women make the american elites look almost "fat" (they most certainly are not)

Born and raised at incredible altitude that would look down on Boulder, air and water far cleaner and less toxic than anywhere in USA

Convenient to make the cut-off "in the past 4 years". In 2019-2023, 5 different people ran faster than Kimetto's time, and a total of 9 people were either faster or within 4 seconds of it.

Look at the times before 2002, they were super slow compared to times around 2012. Every decade the times are significantly faster. In 2028 they'll be a lot faster than today. There will be a bunch a dozen 2:02 guys just like there's a dozen 2:03 guys today.

LOL you win the imbecile award. You are the village idiot. Post something else now... please? Come on... entertain us!

As are sub 12:40 5000 runners. So far exactly one got there with the new spikes. Quite a few 12:40 somethings, but there were before too.

All sub 3:27 1500s were done with the old spikes. And of course, they will say everyone stopped doping after Kiprop. Who really believes that?

As you can see from the poster above, the best rebuttal anyone can come up with is defensive, vile insults. Defensive because obviously a 2 or 3 minute marathon progression over 15 years needs no explanation other than time.

They're talking about non-US countries but you thought they meant the US....

We are not physiologically evolving each decade and training is much as it always has been for decades. Shoes may make a marginal difference. There is nothing naturally inevitable about the continued improvements we see. But developments in doping, which are continuous, easily explain it.

You kid but that's what the western agents and Italian doctors are there for lol

Everybody has the same shoes. So it isn't the shoes.