Can contemporary racing spikes improve sprint running performance?

Engineering innovation and material science have arguably revolutionized the footwear-distance running performance relationship in the last half decade. The newly designed, thick-soled, distance racing shoes have substantially reduced the chemical energy that running requires. Because endurance performance directly depends on energy supply and demand, reductions in demand elevate the racing speeds possible on the body’s limited supply of aerobic energy. Equivalently novel footwear designs have also come forth for the sprint running events. The new designs have several features (including soft and resilient cushioning) that could influence sprinting mechanics and performance. Because speed maintenance is extremely sensitive to step numbers and the total time of foot-ground contact (Bundle & Weyand, 2012; McClelland & Weyand, 2022), the novel designs could induce gait timing alterations that improve performance.