By Lynette Holloway

Anyone old enough to remember the Olympic track and field games in Seoul two decades ago will never forget Florence Griffith Joyner dashing into history. Joyner flashed her way through events with riveting speed and grace in self-styled one-legged outfits, long hair flying, pumping her arms that ended with wildly painted long fingernails.

Joyner, nicknamed Flo-Jo, won four medals and became an American icon. Not only did she elevate track and field to a higher level for women as she broke world records in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, the “World’s Fastest Woman’’ added fashion savvy to the staid world of sports, an achievement that lives on.

Other Olympic stars have left their sartorial mark on the games: Remember Michael Johnson’s golden running shoes that led him to gold in 1996?

When athletes compete in the Beijing Summer Olympics, Aug. 8-24, they’ll be decked out in sleek uniforms designed for them by top athletic clothing makers, as well as other uniform sponsors.
Nike, an official sponsor of the United States Olympic Committee, for example, has deals with dozens of Olympic teams worldwide, including 22 of China’s 28 teams. It will be difficult, an article points out, to turn on the TV during the Beijing games, either in China or in the U.S., and not see Nike uniforms and shoes.

Track and Field

Speed is everything when it comes to the track and field competition, so it stands to reason that everyone wants to gain a competitive edge in the art of acceleration. To that end, Nike has designed a uniform for the U.S. team, pictured at right, that gives aerodynamic advantages to key parts of the body, according to a report on Newlaunches.com.

The iconic athletic-wear manufacturer has developed socks, gloves and arm coverings that purport to help sprinters run faster, the Newlaunches site says. The items allow arms to cut through the air faster because of a special golf ball-like fabric that slices through the wind. The aerodynamic quality is important because the Nike design team found that compared with bare skin, the gloves and arm coverings reduce drag time by 19 percent and the socks by 12.5 percent.

Speed can’t be addressed without improving footwear. That is why Nike’s shoes for Olympic athletes will feature “flywire” technology, which helps lock the shoe to the foot, decreasing foot slippage and increasing speed. Kara Goucher and Bernard Lagat, both Olympic competitors, will compete wearing the Zoom Matumbo (pictured), Nike’s lightest distance track spike. Lagat also will sport the Zoom Victory, which has a hole in the heel to help create a custom fit, and is the company’s lightest middle distance track spike.

The company said both shoes are expected to weigh less than the storied gold spikes Michael Johnson wore in Atlanta.

There’s yet another new design of running shoes, this one involving rice (yes, the grain).

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