Toni Arndt will hold a lecture on advanced footwear technology and its performance enhancing effects at the Hungarian University of Sports Science (TF) on 28 June.
Arndt has been working with research fellows Annamária Péter and András Hegyi (Department of Kinesiology) for years; their collaboration resulted in scientific publications and the Peter Cavanagh Award for basic research awarded to Annamária in 2019 (Footwear Biomechanics Symposium, Kananaskis, Canada). This fruitful collaboration brings Arndt to HUSS a second time within a 10-month period.
Arndt was the keynote speaker of the Biomechanics in Sport and Ageing Symposium in October 2023 at HUSS, and he will pay his next visit between 26-28 June 2024.
In June, Arndt will give lectures on topics such as “Sports technology,” “Running biomechanics: barefoot, minimalistic and performance enhancing shoes” and “Paradigms in foot running injuries”; and students interested in biomechanics will have the opportunity to discuss their own research topics in discussions moderated by Arndt.
Arndt’s intense week will be closed by a presentation that is open to the public, entitled ‘Advanced footwear technology and its performance enhancing effects: what is happening, is it cheating and are there injury risks?’ on 28 June 2024 (14:00-16:00). This presentation is co-organised by the HUSS and the Research and Methodology Center of Athletics (Hungarian Athletics Federation).
Participation is free, but pre-registration is required until June 25, 2024, by filling this form.
The presentation will take place at the HUSS Campus, building K1 (room B001). The abstract of this presentation can be found here, and a short biography of Arndt can also be found here.
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Abstract
Advanced footwear technology and its performance enhancing effects: what is happening, is it cheating and are there injury risks?
Performance driven innovation has in recent years revolutionised running footwear with most large shoe companies developing running shoes with performance-enhancing characteristics, so-called advanced footwear technology (AFT), which has been shown to improve running economy by on average 4%1. Since the Olympic Games in Rio 2016, distance events from 10 000 m to marathon have been dominated by runners wearing such shoes2. I will describe what is known concerning the biomechanics behind the performance-enhancing effects of AFT and how energy return may contribute. I will also discuss the present World Athletics regulations for footwear in elite competition. The major biomechanical reasons for such benefits are energy return material in the thick sole, long stiff lever arm about the ankle joint, and tensile bending energy return due to the stiff plate. Data from recent studies investigating energy return, performance enhancement and individual athlete characteristics will be presented. Biomechanical energy return benefits from AFT shoes. This raises issues of whether it is fair for athletes running in some shoes having advantages over those wearing other shoes. Furthermore, a greater ethical issue of why an athlete with specific performance capacity should be able to exceed this capacity by wearing different shoes.
1Hoogkamer et al. 2018. Sports Med, 48:1009–1019
2Bermon et al., 2021. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2021.653173
Toni Arndt - Biography
Toni Arndt performed his undergraduate studies in New Zealand and Australia in biology and Human Movement Sciences before receiving a scholarship for a PhD at the German Sport University, Köln. His PhD involved studies concerning asymmetrical loading of the Achilles tendon. This line of study continued at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden as a post-doc, together with unique invasive techniques for determining intrinsic foot kinematics. At present Toni Arndt is a professor in biomechanics, specializing in lower extremity muscle-tendon function, athletic footwear and sports biomechanics at The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences (GIH) in Stockholm. He was Dean of Research and Doctoral Education at GIH for six years and is Pro Vice-Chancellor since 2022. He has published over 90 peer reviewed scientific articles and has supervised ten PhD students to completion. In 2020 he was awarded the Swedish senior prize for sport science research. He is a previous President of the International Society of Biomechanics. He is a consultant for World Athletics responsible for investigating compliance of athletic shoes for use in elite competition.
