– For fear of being a hypocrite, we may have built the worst shoes on the market. And I hope they get baptized in the World Cup. So I’m both a little proud and ashamed of it. Karsten Warholm answers questions about whether the new “super shoes” he and coach Leif Olav Alnes have been involved in developing together with the equipment supplier Puma. For the duo has several times expressed a clear skepticism about how shoes and equipment help to change the sport. – I would very much like you to run barefoot so that it was athlete versus nature, but we are not the ones making the regulations. And there we feel compelled to take part in the equipment revolution that we see happening. I wish it was not like that, but you have to relate to the realities and play with the cards that are available and legal, Alnes thinks. – It is a principle that I have always intended to apply to sports, that if someone can do it, then everyone must be able to do it. Our response to that has been to move the border even further, Warholm admits. LONG PROCESS: Already in September last year, Karsten Warholm was in the process of testing new studded shoes for this season. Here from a visit to Germany with the prototype. Photo: Vegard B. Lien / news Think they can raise the level The new shoe is now finally finished, after a long time of planning and careful adaptation. But for now, it is also very secret and Warholm does not want to show them until he hopefully is on the starting line in the World Cup. – Our super shoe will come with an implementation that no one else has, which we will see in the World Cup. Hopefully I can run with them. They will at least be something that can help me a little, if I get the damage in order, to be able to raise the level a little more, Warholm reveals. – These super shoes, as we call it, have become part of the sport. It is ugly to say that, but there is no way around it, he adds. In the Olympics, he set a world record with almost a pure carbon plate with spikes, ie without build-up under the forefoot. Alnes says that the Olympic shoe initially weighed 210 grams, but that they reduced it to only 135 grams. – How much does the shoe weigh now? SUCCESS DUO: Karsten Warholm and coach Leif Olav Alnes after the Olympic gold in Tokyo last summer. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB – A little more, he answers secretly. – How is it then? – It is regulated that way and it is approved. We have complied with the objectives in the regulations. I think these regulations are until 2024 so you should evaluate it, but I think it is difficult to go back now, says the coach, without giving any details. – Very fascinated Warholm has tested a lot in training, but never been able to use the model in a full 400 meter hurdles race. He thinks they will be noticed. – It will be exciting to see the reception of them and see them in the 400 meter hurdles. I just hope I can be 100 percent (ready for the World Cup) so I can give them the justice they deserve. Alnes has a master’s degree in biomechanics and admits that the close collaboration with Puma and the Norwegian top manager Bjørn Gulden has been exciting. COLLABORATION: The new shoes are made by Puma. Here is Warholm together with the CEO of the company, Bjørn Gulden, in 2019. Photo: Fredrik Hagen / NTB – It is a lot of fun in isolation. One must distinguish between it. I’m very fascinated by it, but the old man in me wants it to be a bit like before. But that’s often the case and it’s a sport that has been quite similar, says Alnes, and points out another problem he sees in the equipment revolution. – I think it is unfortunate if it becomes a sport where people can buy themselves success. Now all the manufacturers are involved in shoe development, so it is not certain that it will be so different between today’s runners, but it will be a little more difficult to compare historical results, he believes.
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