• Eliud Kipchoge. Break the two-hour barrier in a custom marathon
  • Brigid Kosgei: Destroy the women's marathon world record

A shoe model, Nike's Vaporfly Next%, has jumped to fame and controversy after helping Eliud Kipchoge run the marathon in less than two hours (1:59:40). And, a day later, contribute to Brigit Kosgei beat in Chicago (2:14:04) the female world record that, since 2003, Paula Radcliffe held (2:15:25).

The Vaporfly% is the improved version of the Vaporfly 4%. Between the two they have shattered the men's and women's marathon and half marathon world records, and embedded in the lists, in the last two seasons, and only in the men's marathon, seven of the 10 best brands in history.

But there was already another shoe that revolutionized athletics. It was in 1957. And it was a single shoe, the one that fit Yuriy Stepanov on her whipping foot. With it, the Soviet beat Leningrad (St. Petersburg), his hometown, on July 13 of that year, the high jump world record. He left it at 2.16. It was the culmination of a season in which, strangely, two other Soviet jumpers, Vladimir Sitkin and Igor Kashkarov , exceeded, respectively, 2.15 and 2.14. They were good, but they didn't look so good.

The record of Stepanov, an athlete not particularly prominent, increased surprise and prompted suspicion. One of the photos of the record, taken innocently from close, allowed to distinguish a strikingly thick sole. That and other shoes were investigated, which the Soviets justified as intended to reduce the risk of injury. They were made with a sole up to five centimeters thick of a flexible and porous material that acted as a spring. A kind of vertical trampoline. It was not illegal. Actually, there was nothing legislated about it. No, at least, with such precision or thoroughness.

Illegal for the IAAF

Everyone, not only massively the Soviets, began using that shoe, which was not entirely new (tests had been done in other countries, especially in Sweden, where the high jump enjoyed a high level, but without transferring them to no relevant competition), which was already called "orthopedic shoe" and "compensated shoe". Under his impulse, the marks above the two meters, not so frequent then, proliferated. The pressures exerted from different fronts and instances led to the International Federation (IAAF) declaring it illegal and establishing a maximum thickness of 1.3 mm for the soles . But, thanks to the non-retroactive nature of the standards, he recognized the world record and the marks achieved with it.

Interestingly, the same did not happen in Spain. Juan Ignacio Ariño , provided with the «magic shoe», jumped 1.92, national record, on September 23, 1957. To improve it, a control was organized on October 27 of the same year, in Madrid City tracks University with him as the only participant.

Ariño left the record in 1.97 after overcoming 1.93 and 1.95. The record record included, underlining it, the existence of the "compensated shoe." And he specified, in a handwritten note: "There is a trade saying that official decisions are expected." Those decisions came in the form of annulment when the IAAF banned the shoe. But when, on August 15, 1958, the IAAF itself recognized, however, the world top of Stepanov, Ariño requested that his national be homologated. But, the plenary of the Spanish Federation denied the petition on October 11 of the same year. Ariño came to jump 1.92 with "normal" shoes.

Stepanov's personal, human story ended badly. The athlete, struck down by the dust, doubts and criticism caused by his record, fell in 1959 in alcoholism and a depression that required hospitalization . After his divorce in 1961, he committed suicide in 1963 in the same Leningrad-St. Petersburg that had seen him born. I was 31 years old.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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