Cosmos
Cosmos is a quarterly science magazine. We aim to inspire curiosity in ‘The Science of Everything’ and make the world of science accessible to everyone.
By Cosmos
Running a race is often seen as one of the purest forms of sport. It’s just you, body and mind, against the world.
Not that it’s ever been that low-tech. When Roger Bannister ran his sub-4:00 mile, he wore custom-made shoes of the thinnest possible leather and used a grindstone to shave precious grams from his already-thin spikes.
But today, the sport is far more high-tech than Bannister’s home-done efforts. Here are five eye-catching developments.
#1. Supershoes
The first prototypes, from Nike, appeared in the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Marathon Trials. But they didn’t take off until 2018, when researchers discovered that compared to the best-available conventional shoes, they reduced the energy cost of running by 4 per cent.
“I had a scientist tell me it was better than taking EPO [a blood-boosting drug used by Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France],” says two-time Olympian Kara Goucher.
They work by sandwiching a carbon-fiber plate between layers of super-bouncy foam. Initially, scientists thought the plate might be acting as a spring, but when they used a saw to hack the plate into smaller pieces, they found the butchered shoe still worked. Whatever is going on, researcher RodgerKram told Cosmos, “It’s not just the foam. It’s not just the plate. It’s some combination of foam and plate.”
More here.
#2. Run my virtual heart
When two-time Olympic marathoner Des Linden steps out to run, she isn’t alone. She’s feeding data to a “digital twin” of her heart: a virtual concoction that business technology provider TCS views as the next step in computer modeling.
Though it’s a more than just a model, says Brian Purvis, manager of TCS’s digital lab in Cincinnati, Ohio. “It adds in real-world live information.”
It starts with an MRI image of the heart, plus an EKG to determine its functioning. Then, such instruments heart-rate monitors and blood-oxygen sensors monitor the heart’s functioning during training. All of that is used to train an AI to predict what might happen under an even wider range of situations—such as during a race.
Elite marathoner Reed Fischer is already seeing the benefits. “We saw that I could ramp up and down really quickly from a heart-rate standpoint,” he told Cosmos. “So, if I were to cover a surge in a race, I can quickly recover from that move. Data that reinforce me to take more risks in racing is super helpful.”
More here.
#3. Stretchy batteries
Wearable electronics needed to provide data for things like the virtual heart (or more common devices like GPS trackers) require batteries that can make them bulky and uncomfortable.
But two teams, one in China, the other in the UK, are designing stretchy, jelly-like batteries that can be worn like wrist-bands or perhaps athletic tape.
At present, the goal is to use them for medical devices, but the application to sports is obvious. Miniaturized electronics and thin flexible screens might even produce devices that can be worn like sweatbands.
More here.
#4. Supershoes redux
Since Nike’s first supershoe, there has been a footwear arms race as companies scrambled not just to catch up, but to produce ever-faster footwear.
It’s starting to produce some interesting comparisons. A 2021 study discovered that a shoe one runner found best might slow another runner down. Some saw as much as a 5.9% difference between their best and poorest matches—opening the door to spectacular improvements, if they happen to find their perfect shoe.
A group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology is taking this a step farther by 3D printing critical components of supershoes—opening the door to giving every runner a perfectly tuned shoe. “We imagine that if you sent us a video of yourself running, we could 3D-print the shoe that’s right for you,” says first author, Sarah Fay, now at Smith College.
More here.
#5. The Power of running rivalry
Social science isn’t high-tech, but the analytical processes it employs are. One intriguing finding comes from Gavin Kilduff of New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, who scoured the internet for race results for runners in a club in Western Pennsylvania, looking for those who frequently raced against people who might be rivals.
When he compared these runners’ performances in races in which their rivals were present to those in which they weren’t, he found that they were about 5 seconds per kilometer faster when running against a possible rival.
At one level, this isn’t surprising. “The word compete comes from the Latin to strive or contend together,” says sports psychologist Jeff Simons of California State University, East Bay. What’s new is the ability to quantify what the ancients knew intuitively.
More here.
Richard A. Lovett has coached competitors in the U.S. Olympic Team Marathon Trials, as well as numerous national champions in club cross-country.
