The hi-tech shoes rewriting the Olympics record book

It's not just talent and dedication that will set athletes on the path to glory at the Games in Paris, writes Ben Bloom

- Ben Bloom

In May, ahead of her first appearance of the season at the Eugene Diamond League, Keely Hodgkinson made her annual visit to her sponsor Nike's headquarters in Oregon. Hodgkinson, like many of Nike's top athletes, has been instrumental in the recent evolution of athletics spikes, offering feedback on what she feels works and what does not.

On this occasion, she was alongside Team GB 1,500m teammate Georgia Bell and their coach Trevor Painter when the shoe boffins brought out their latest prototype. “Everyone in the room, when they got them out, said, at the same time: ‘What the fuck are they?’” recalls Painter. “They are like high-heeled shoes – really thin at the back. Like something from ‘Back to the Future’. They are a bit weird, but they’ll probably set the world alight when they come out in the next few years.”

Whether this particular revolutionary design comes to fruition remains to be seen, but the arms race in shoe innovation shows no signs of abating. Continued footwear advancement combined with improvements in track technology has left many believing records could soar at the Paris Olympics, as they have done in various events over recent years.

Hodgkinson, a firm favourite for Olympic 800m gold, will wear Nike’s latest iteration of their middle-distance Air Zoom Victory super spikes, which evolved from prototypes first worn at the 2019 World Championships and were subsequently rolled out to the masses after the Covid pandemic. The combination of carbon fibre plates and ultra-springy foam was a game-changer.