AI Summary
5 min readThe two-hour marathon is broken—and technology is why
In May 2026, nearly 750,000 people lined the streets of London for the marathon. Among them were two Germans staring at their phones. Mark Mikkowski, head of innovation at Adidas, and Patrick Narva, head of running, were watching the timing data coming in from a small group of runners wearing their latest "super shoe"—a specially designed shoe with feather-light foam and a carbon fiber plate that returns energy with every stride. "It gives you that feel of literally at every step, you have got that spring effect," Mikkowski says. At kilometer 40, they knew something was happening. Kenyan runner Sebastian Sawe crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds. The two-hour barrier—the number that had haunted marathon runners for decades—was gone. Right behind him, another Adidas athlete, Yomif Kejelcha, also went sub-two hours. "We erupted in joy," Mikkowski says. "We're already working on the next iterations. I'm making it plural intentionally, because we're just not stopping."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:31) **The Two-Hour Marathon Barrier Falls** - The episode opens with the 2026 London Marathon, where Adidas innovators watch their "super shoe" technology help two runners break the sub-two-hour marathon, a feat once considered impossible.
- 2 (05:40) **Why Athletes Today Perform Better** - Professor Steve Haake explains the historical arc of athletic improvement, showing that most gains come from population size and globalization, with technology being just the "icing on the icing on the cake."
- 3 (08:06) **The Jesse Owens vs. Modern Athlete Experiment** - Steve Haake recreates 1936 Olympic conditions for sprinter Andre De Grasse, demonstrating how much technology—from shoes to tracks to timing—has changed performance.
- 4 (11:41) **Tech-Enabled Scouting in American Football** - The episode shifts to high school football recruitment, where apps like Suma Sports use AI and smartphone cameras to help athletes get discovered without expensive camps.
- 5 (15:16) **How Scouting Has Changed** - Former NFL scout Kari Darlington describes the shift from "gut reaction" recruiting to data-driven analysis over the past two to three years.
- 6 (17:54) **UFC's High-Tech Performance Institute** - After a break, the episode enters a UFC facility in Las Vegas, where a jiu-jitsu robot and anti-gravity treadmills represent the sport's tech makeover.
- 7 (21:47) **Solving the Weight-Cut Crisis** - The UFC developed its tech gyms specifically to address dangerous weight-cutting practices, which once led to a fighter fainting and being hospitalized.
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Show Notes
For decades, sportspeople have been getting fitter, faster and reaching ever-higher levels of performance. But as the margin between winning and losing shrinks, athletes are turning to technology to make the difference.
In this new season of Tech Tonic, Josh Noble explores how advanced ‘supershoes’ are helping to break marathon records, how young players are using AI to catch the eye of recruiters in the ultra-competitive world of American football, and how UFC is finding new ways to keep fighters healthier for longer.
This season of Tech Tonic is hosted by Josh Noble and produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. The senior producer is Edwin Lane and the executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Flo Phillips.
Clips: BBC, British Pathé, MMA World, Fight Network, @SportsRecruits
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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