Olympics-Athletics-Amazing records, sprint shocks, but shoe tech clouds the glory

[Jilly_in_VA]

Two incredible 400m hurdles races, a women's sprint clean sweep, a stunning 100m shock and a shared high jump gold medal will be the indelible athletics memories from the Tokyo Olympics as the sport showed there is life after Usain Bolt.

Yet hovering above the stellar displays was the twin shadow of "performance-enhancing shoes" and a super-speedy track, that has fans never quite sure how to judge what they are seeing against some of the greats of the past.

Karsten Warholm's battle with American Rai Benjamin saw the Norwegian destroy his own world record by .76 seconds - a huge margin for a one-lap race - with Rai also well inside his own mark.

The scenario was then repeated in the women's race when Sydney McLaughlin shattered her own world record ahead of fellow American Dalilah Muhammad also inside the old mark.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/review-olympics-athletics-amazing-records-sprint-shocks-shoe-tech-clouds-glory-2021-08-08/
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Somebody always gotta bitch about sumpin

[underpants]

1. I remember that Beijing 2008 swimming pool also lead to crazy times

There was something with the suits too. Not sure how that was accounted for.

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. Just typical sniping

Although they did say the track was very "springy", whatever that means.

Just as an aside, the track my son ran on in high school was latex-based. The team name at that school is the Trojans. You can imagine the jokes.