its 90% footwear across racing and training. 10% other things. Every argument against footwear is incredibly weak.
I would say the arguments FOR the shoe theory are weak. As pointed out above, only a narrow demographic is noticeably faster than before. Male, under 25, in the US, and significantly below the top pro level (for example, those who set WRs). The hype is all abput NCAA men. One track. One meet, really. Absolute world records (as T&FN lists them without regard to indoor vs. outdoor) are not falling at any unusual rate. The longer ones where wavelight has an enprmous benefit have come down slightly over the last few years.
Komen's outdoor records are still standing. So are El G's. Jakob isn't suddenly seconds faster this indoor season than he ever has been before or than anyone in history. Hassan certainly isn't. NCAA men are. With the exception of Tuohy, that's it. A bunch of sub-elite guys who have never passed a drug test nor come close to a WR, and one gal who hasn't either. Npbody else. If it were the shoes the effect would be universal.
I think this is a better way to look at it then WRs. Breaking WRs is such a small sample size and there are just too many other factors at play. At any given time, at most only a few athletes have the ability to come close to breaking a WR, and then you need other things like good conditions, peaking fitness for a WR attempt instead of a championship race, etc.
And as pointed out, a pretty significant number of records have actually fallen anyway.
Looking at indoors is incredibly misleading, Nobody used to care about indoors, now everybody is lying about seed times, trying to get in the fastest heats possible for big prs, It's a mindset difference, Connor burns and Gary Martin both broke 4 last year in hoka spikes. there's more to it than you guys are looking at.
anyone who thinks its not 95% the shoes is a f*cking moron
// thread
Have athletes suddenly stopped doping because of the new shoes?
No. We all know most pros aren’t clean. Just knowing how not to get caught most of the time. And if you were associated in the past with Al Sal you know the ropes.