**6. Legal, ethical, and safety considerations**

The advancement of sports apparel and products that continue to stretch performance limits over time have raised legal, ethical, and safety concerns. There are serious implications on rules and regulations, the nature of sports, and the health of athletes that require attention as technology continues to evolve at an ever-increasing rate.

In response to the widespread concern about the impact of shoe technology on the nature of sports as an avenue to promote and celebrate natural human endeavours, World Athletics (WA) has recently (early 2020) modified rules governing competition shoes for elite athletes. This includes sole thickness regulated so as not to exceed 40 mm and not to contain more than one rigid embedded plate [7]. However, the amendment also allowed development shoes to be worn in international competitions prior to their availability to public upon approval of the shoe specifications by WA. Coupled with a popular shoe company releasing a shoe with the said 'maximum' specifications soon thereafter, these raised suspicion on the timing of the new regulations [7]. It has also been noted that the magnitude of race performance improvements by athletes running using CFP shoes which is estimated to be approximately 4% [55] is similar to those expected from substances and methods included on the prohibited list of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), such as blood doping and erythropoietin use [73]. This has elicited a feeling that WA may be abetting "technological doping" and doing little to protect the principle of fairness in sports competition [7]. The scenario is a clear indication that unregulated sports science and technological advancement can threaten the true essence of sports which is based on ethos that exalts natural human effort.

There also exists a controversy related to the ineffectiveness of interpreting the doping concept. It has been observed that the anti-doping process, despite

#### *Sports Science and Efforts towards Sub-Two Hour Marathon Performance DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100005*

ever-increasing restrictions and control, still produces suboptimal results and is currently not as effective as stakeholders in sports and the public at large would like it to be [7, 8]. With many athletes being reported to have used doping agents post hoc (well after the event), there is increasing scepticism about any outstanding sports performance, which may lead to reserved, truncated, or partially withheld celebration of sports victories. These unfortunate developments will fundamentally affect the nature of sports in the future. Pitsiladis et al. [8] observed that there is an urgent need to increase the quality and efficiency of the anti-doping processes to rebrand and restore the credibility of sports. The authors recommended a holistic anti-doping approach comprising at least three primary anti-doping pillars or 3Ps to prevent doping, protect the clean athlete, and promote performance without doping. There is evidence of implementation of some of these recommendations like in allowing 'clean' athletes from Russia to participate in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games under ROC after WADA banned Russia from international sports competitions until 2022 due to what was seen as state-sponsored doping cover up scheme [74, 75]. However, it is daunting task to ensure clean sports, but one which must be accomplish through concerted efforts to safeguard the future of sports industry.

With the evidence that air turbulence can be manipulated to generate tail suction/vortex forces which may substantially reduce the energy cost of running, thus improving performance (such as in the INEOS 159 Challenge), we are likely to see more runners trying to apply the concept in the field with their sponsored pacesetters. However, the dynamics of its application to an actual race may not be easy. If several groups of athletes try this at the same event, jockeying for spaces is likely to ensue, which could substantially change endurance running competitions from the way we know it in terms of strategies, tactics, and rules.

Another concern is that advanced sports products are only available to a few privileged members of society. This raises the issue of whether it is ethical or if it amounts to unfairness by disenfranchising the majority of the population who cannot afford the high costs associated with such products. In addition, claims on efficacy and/or side effects of most of these sports products are largely not yet proven, determined, or validated in controlled randomised studies. This raises concerns about possible unfair commercial practices as well as the long-term safety and health of athletes.
