2021年经济学人 东京奥运会--新型跑鞋

Science & technology

科技板块

Sports equipment

体育用品

Getting a leg up

抢占上风

New running shoes could help smash a string of Olympic records

新型跑鞋有望打破一系列奥运纪录

Platform shoes are back in fashion, at least in athletics².

厚底鞋又开始流行了，至少在田径场上是这样。

Many of the long-distance runners at the Tokyo Olympics, which begin on July 23rd, will arrive at the starting line sporting footwear with a distinctive³ chunky-looking heel.

在7月23日开幕的东京奥运会上，许多长跑运动员都将穿着一双特别炸眼的厚底运动鞋抵达起跑线。

It will be more than just a fashion statement. The new shoes offer such a big performance advantage that critics have described them as "technological⁴ doping".

这种新款鞋将不仅仅是一种时尚宣言，它在性能上也有很大的优势，以至于批评者将其描述为“技术兴奋剂”。

Running-shoe makers⁵ have long tried to boost athletic¹ performance, observes Geoff Burns, a biomechanics expert at the University of Michigan.

密歇根大学的生物力学专家杰夫·伯恩斯表示，跑鞋制造商一直在努力提高运动员的表现。

In olden days, a 1% improvement in "running economy"—the energy taken to travel a given distance—would have impressed.

在过去，如果“跑步经济性”(跑一定距离所消耗的能量)提高1%就会让人印象深刻。

But in 2016 Nike released the first version of its "Vaporfly" model, which improved running economy by 4%.

而在2016年，耐克发布了第一个版本的“Vaporfly”模型，使跑步经济性提高了4%。

If that percentage were to translate directly into performance, it would knock about five minutes off an elite⁶ male's marathon time.

如果将该百分比直接转化为成绩，那么一位优秀男运动员的马拉松时间将减少5分钟左右。

In practice, as Dr Burns observes, it wouldn't quite do that.

然而，正如伯恩斯博士所观察到的，在实践中它并不能完全实现这一点。

A marathon improvement of around 90 seconds would be a more realistic expectation.

在马拉松比赛中提高90秒左右是比较现实的期望。

But Vaporfly and its successors have helped athletes smash a string of records.

而Vaporfly及其系列鞋已经帮助运动员打破了一系列记录。

On June 6th Sifan Hassan, a Dutch runner, completed a women's 10,000 metres race in 29 minutes and 6.82 seconds, beating a record set in 2016.

6月6日，荷兰选手斯凡·哈桑以29分6.82秒的成绩完成了女子10000米的比赛，打破了2016年创下的纪录。

Two days later she was overtaken by Letesenbet Gidey, an Ethiopian, who clocked 29 minutes and 1.03 seconds.

两天后，埃塞俄比亚选手Letesenbet Gidey以29分1.03秒的成绩超越了她。

In 2019 Eliod Kipchoge, a Kenyan, became the first to run, albeit⁷ in an unofficial event, a marathon's distance of 42.195km in undertwo hours.

2019年，肯尼亚人埃利奥德·基普乔格在两小时内跑完42.195公里的马拉松，成为第一个跑完全程的人，尽管这是一项非官方赛事。

The same weekend Brigid Kosgei, another Kenyan, broke a women's marathon record that had stood for 16 years.

就在同一个周末，另一名肯尼亚人布里吉德·科斯盖打破了保持了16年的女子马拉松纪录。

Scientists are still puzzling over exactly how the shoes work.

科学家们对于该鞋的工作原理仍感到困惑。

The soles are made of a new type of foam⁸ that offers an unprecedented⁹ mix of resilience and squidginess, according to Dr Burns.

据伯恩斯博士表示，该款鞋鞋底由一种新型泡沫材料制成，这种材料具有前所未有的弹性和柔软性，

This returns around 80% of the energy from each strike of a runner's foot.

能够将跑步者每一次脚部撞击所产生的能量的80%返还给跑步者。

The carbon-fibre plate may help by stiffening¹⁰ the midsole, and possibly by altering a runner's gait.

碳纤维板可以帮助加强鞋底的硬度，似乎还可以改变跑步者的步态。

By cushioning a runner's bones, muscles and ligaments from repetitive impacts, the shoes may even help athletes train harder than they otherwise could.

这种鞋甚至可以通过缓冲跑步者的骨骼、肌肉和韧带免受不断的冲击来帮助运动员进行比平时更艰苦的训练。

All that is great news for Nike, which sells the Vaporfly and its successors for around $250 each.

这一切对耐克来说都是好消息，他们以每双250美元左右的价格销售Vaporfly及其系列鞋。

(Rival manufacturers now offer similar shoes of their own.) Whether it is good for the sport is another question.

(竞争对手现在也在提供类似鞋。)然而对这项运动是否有益则是另一个问题。

Different sports have different tolerances¹¹ for technological assistance. Running tends towards the conservative end of the spectrum¹².

不同的运动对技术援助有不同的容忍度，而跑步倾向于保守的一端。

In January 2020 World Athletics, the governing body of international athletics, passed new rules limiting the thickness of a road shoe's sole to 40mm.

2020年1月，国际田径管理机构世界田联通过了新规定，将路用鞋的鞋底厚度限制在40毫米。

Meanwhile, Nike appears to have shelved plans to deploy¹³ high tech shoes designed for sprinters at the Tokyo games, possibly because they did not comply with regulations either.

与此同时，耐克似乎已经搁置了在东京奥运会上为短跑运动员设计的高科技运动鞋的计划，可能是因为它们不符合规定。

But if they, or a rival manufacturer, have worked out a way around that problem, there could be fireworks in the sprints¹⁴, too.

但如果他们或竞争对手已经找到了解决这个问题的方法，那么在短跑比赛中也可能会擦出火花。

1 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

2 athletics   

n.运动，体育，田径运动

参考例句：

• When I was at school I was always hopeless at athletics.我上学的时候体育十分糟糕。
• Our team tied with theirs in athletics.在田径比赛中，我们队与他们队旗鼓相当。

3 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

4 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

5 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

7 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

8 foam   

v./n.泡沫，起泡沫

参考例句：

• The glass of beer was mostly foam.这杯啤酒大部分是泡沫。
• The surface of the water is full of foam.水面都是泡沫。

9 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

10 stiffening   

n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• Her mouth stiffening, she could not elaborate. 她嘴巴僵直，无法细说下去。
• No genius, not a bad guy, but the attacks are hurting and stiffening him. 不是天才，人也不坏，但是四面八方的攻击伤了他的感情，使他横下了心。

11 tolerances   

n.宽容( tolerance的名词复数 )；容忍；忍耐力；偏差

参考例句：

• Not only must the centers decrease, but the tolerances to produce quality bonds must also decrease. 不仅中心间距减少，而且产生优质连接的容限也必须减少。 来自辞典例句
• Then analysis the reasons and influencing factors of such tolerances. 最后分析出现误差的原因以及影响因素。 来自互联网

12 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

13 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

14 sprints   

n.短距离的全速奔跑( sprint的名词复数 )v.短距离疾跑( sprint的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• You can run sprints only so long before you're out of breath. 你死命地跑，只能跑那么一段时间，到了喘不上气的时候，只好停下来。 来自辞典例句
• The cheetah finds the open grasslands ideal footing for its lightning-quick sprints. 非洲猎豹把开阔的草原作为它们闪电猎食的理想处所。 来自互联网