10-Aug-2024 – Paris Oympics – 2:06:26 – Adidas AdiZero Adios Pro Evo 1
Date of birth: 11-Aug-1991
Nationality: Ethiopian
Olympic Record Duration: 2 months, 1 week (as of 16 October 2024)
The athlete:
Tamirat Tola was not meant to run at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Before we get to that latest chapter of his career, let us look at the foundations. Tola steadily built his running career over many distances before committing to the marathon. In addition to many strong cross-country performances he secured bronze in the 10000 metres at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
By this stage he had already been competing in marathons since 2014, however his best was yet to come. At the 2017 IAAF World Championships he secured silver in the marathon event, and was slowly moving up the rankings in the other marathons in which he competed. This led to his 2:04:06 victory at the 2018 Dubai Marathon, at the time one of the fastest performances in the world and notably without carbon-fibre plates.
It would not be until 2021 when he would again taste victory, this time in 2:03:39 at the Amsterdam Marathon. Now wearing the Adidas AdiZero Adios Pro 2, with it’s carbon-fibre energy rods, his star kept rising with his biggest win yet at the 2022 IAAF World Championships in the marathon. His best race of 2023 was without doubt the New York City Marathon, where he won in 2:04:58 and finally broke the course record set in 2011 by Geoffrey Mutai.
Despite this, the sheer depth of talent Ethiopia enjoyed meant he did not make selection for the marathon team heading to the 2024 Paris Olympics but crucially was still the reserve. Sisay Lemma, who was one of the favourites to win, pulled out due to injury which gave Tola the opportunity.
The course for the 2024 Paris Olympics was incredibly challenging. It featured 438 metres of overall elevation and 436 metres of overall descent, with the mile section leading up to the 29th kilometre featuring an incline of 16 percent. This was where Tola made his move and never looked back, eventually taking a comfortable win and shaving mere seconds of the Olympic Record.
The shoes:
Tola wore the latest weapon developed by Adidas, the AdiZero Adios Pro Evo 1. It is the latest evolution of the concept first introduced in 2020 as the AdiZero Adios Pro, in particular the carbon-fibre EnergyRods encased within the Thermoplastic Polyester Elastomer foam dubbed Lightstrike Pro.
Both were further developments of the original concept, the foam alone saving 50 grams through the non-compression molding process Adidas have applied. The EnergyRods, already designed to anatomically follow the shape of human foot bones, were further tweaked to make the rocker effect even more aggressive.
One of the key downsides to the new foam composition is durability, with Adidas famously advising the expensive shoes only last one marathon distance plus one acclimatisation run. This is not entirely accurate, with at least some finding the shoes still provided high levels of performance for around four times that distance. Mileage indeed does vary.
Despite the initial confusion of many, myself included, Adidas did not release the shoes in limited numbers due to requirements from World Athletics to homologate the shoes. There are special dispensations for prototypes, and Adidas plan to release the model more widely. New colourways are bound to emerge as well.
In short, Adidas wanted to make the most of its new product and created the mystique around price and availability to generate even more attention. Not that it needed to given the performances it’s elite athletes are achieving.
References:
https://news.adidas.com/running/adidas-launches-adizero-adios-pro-evo-1—the-future-of-racing.-at-its-lightest-/s/92fc11e6-105a-4c84-a196-81eca4044ad9
https://www.runnersworld.com/races-places/a45736146/tamirat-tola-wins-2023-new-york-city-marathon-mens-race/
https://worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/paris24/news/article/paris-2024-olympics-report-men-marathon
https://www.roadtrailrun.com/2024/03/adidas-adizero-adios-pro-evo-1-initial.html
https://worldathletics.org/athletes/ethiopia/tamirat-tola-14589459
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamirat_Tola
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2022/10/hilly-paris-2024-olympic-marathon-course-revealed-that-goes-from-paris-to-versailles-and-back/
https://run.outsideonline.com/gear/road-shoes/adidas-adizero-adios-pro-evo1-durability/