Gold for Gabrielle Thomas of USA, silver for Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia, bronze for Brittany Brown of USA during the Athletics Women's 200m Final on Day 11 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France on August 6, 2024 in Saint-Denis, France. Henk Jan Dijks | Marcel ter Bals | Defodi Images | Getty Images At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the first three men to cross the marathon finish line each flashed the same neon green shoe, emblazoned with an ever-familiar swoosh. On their feet was the world's first "supershoe," a prototype of the Nike Zoom Vaporfly that would go on to revolutionize the sport of running and stir years of controversy as runners used it to shatter records.
Competitors would copy it, and running's governing body would ultimately put in place new rules that remain in effect for this year's Paris Olympics . The Vaporfly's thick foam cushion was the key, completely defying the norms of the time. Previously, running shoes were "flats" designed with a less-is-more approach.
"You would have been laughed off the stage if you said a thick shoe was fast in 2015," said Elliott Heath, product manager of Nike Running footwear. This year's marathon is set for Saturday and Sunday, and Heath expects many of its runners to wear Nike's most up-to-date and rule-abiding model of the supershoe, the Alphafly 3. It retails for $285, generally drawing raves from the die-hard running community that dissects each shoe on release .
And there are plenty of others after Nik.