On more than one occasion, Nike has been involved in unfair competition and unmatched issues due to the technology offered by its tennis shoes and Tokyo 2020 was no exception.
The problem came after the statements made by the Norwegian athlete Karsten Warholm, who after winning the gold medal, assured that the Nike ZoomX Dragonfly could have given an advantage to his American rival Rai Benjamin.
In this 400-meter hurdles competition, both athletes managed to break world records, with which the event was described as “the best race in Olympic history”.
Despite the fact that the Norwegian was crowned with the gold medal, he did not miss the opportunity to accuse of an alleged unfair competition on the part of the North American who would have run with Nike tennis shoes that would be a leading adaptation for the discipline of Nike Zoom tennis shoes Alpha Fly worn by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge to run a marathon for the first time in less than two hours.
Although Warholm has worked with Puma and Mercedes F1 Team to design his own shoes (spikes) that helped him win gold, the truth is that in his opinion the Nike shoes worn by Benjamin gave him a significant advantage on the field.
The tennis shoes in question have ZoomX technology, which, according to Nike’s own site, translates into footwear “Lightweight and breathable with a bounce at every step”, adding that they would help runners “excel in races of 1,500 to 10,000 meters.”
Although the shoes used by the Norwegian athlete include a carbon upper plate on the sole and weigh just 135 grams, the medalist claimed that they are not the same as Nike’s.
According to The New York Times, Warholm He said that Benjamin “had those things in his shoes, which I hate.”
Additionally, he assured that although he is in favor of technologies that promote better running shoes, he indicated that these should be maintained “at a level where runners can compare the results because that is important.”
“I don’t see why I should put something under a racing shoe. At mid-range I can understand it from the damping. If you want padding, you can put a mattress there. But if you put a springboard, I think it sucks, and I think it takes away the credibility of our sport, ”said the Olympic medalist.
The reply came from the side of the North American runner who claimed that “the track conditions, not his footwear, helped him finish in second place. I could wear different shoes and still run fast. “
It is important to mention that this could be considered by the International Olympic Committee if we consider that Zoom technology has been banned by World Athletics, since they promise the possibility of improving runners’ times by up to 4 percent?
Although at the moment there is no formal complaint and it is not known if there will be any greater consequence, the truth is that the Norwegian athlete’s statements and all the commotion caused around them would be becoming the best publicity for Nike.
And it is that the firm without a practitioner lifting a finger has managed to demonstrate the efficiency of its technology in footwear, where even its detractor in this case, has recognized through great criticism that its proposal is superior.