Technological Doping

Where do you draw the line between an unfair advantage and an amazing technological innovation in sport? According the World Anti Doping Agency, that line is crossed when something 'goes against the spirit of the sport'. This definition seems to leave a grey area in this subject and with each passing year this grey area seems to grow.

In 2008, 105 world records were broken in swimming throughout the world. 79 of these records were broken by wearers of Speedo's new swimsuit: the LZR Racer (pronounced lazer). Manufactured from a woven elastane-nylon and polyurethane mix, these suits changed the face of the swimming world. The suits were designed on the basis of NASA's wind tunnel testing experiments and analysis and the design was in collaboration with japanese fashion house Commes des Garcons. These suits reduced skin friction drag by 24% more than previous swimsuits that Speedo had produced. The full body design compresses the body and optimizes hydrodynamics and in the end resulted in a 2% increase in the speed of a swimmer.

The swimsuit was endorsed by FINA (Federation Internationale de Natation) prior to the Olympics in 2008 however after the European Short Course Championships in Croatia in december of that year, where 17 world record were broken, FINA changed its's regulation to outlaw these suits. The new rules stated that swimsuits must not cover the neck and must not extend past the shoulders and ankles in addition to regulating the types of fabrics and buoyancy of a suit.

Fast forward to this year, and a similar debate has broken out about the Nike Vaporfly 4% which was given the green light for use in the now cancelled Tokyo Olympic Games. The 4% in the name is a reference to the claimed increase in a runner's performance according to Nike. The shoe helped two Nike sponsored athletes: Abraham Kiptum and Eliud Kipchoge break the world half marathon and world marathon records respectively. The shoe gives the runner a more efficient tread, which has been claimed by critics to have a 'spring effect' which is an illegal attribute of a running shoe in the world of athletics. However, more recent studies have shown that the shoe does not provide any additional spring, however it alters the way an athlete runs, reducing the amount of energy expended by an athlete when running.

The real unfair advantage of technologies such as these is that only affiliated athletes can use them. Such innovation can only really contribute to the sport in a positive way if everyone can benefit. When the Tokyo Olympics does eventually take place, maybe we will see many more records being broken but hopefully it will be on a level playing field rather than athletes affiliated with certain brands ruling the sport.

Cian Rellis