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Ready to run in Beijing with rice on her feet - Olympics
ESPN - Associated Press June 13, 2008, 4:59 PM ET
TOKYO --First, the commotion was about high-tech swimsuits and the latest Speedo. Now, as the Olympics approach, it's about the shoes.
Japanese marathoner Mizuki Noguchi won the Olympic gold medal four years ago in Athens. She credits her victory to ....state-of-the-art track shoes derive their superior absorption and traction not from the latest combination of fabrics and synthetics but from the lowly husk of rice.
With the Summer Games less than two months away, she and the rest of Japan's marathon squad are ready to turn their rice-clad feet loose on Beijing.
"The shoes are easy to run in," Noguchi told The Associated Press. "The Beijing course is hard on the feet and legs. It's flat and the surface of the roads is very hard."
Noguchi, the second Japanese woman to win the marathon gold, will head to Beijing with an updated version of the rice-tech shoes that helped her win in Athens.
Developed by Japanese sportswear maker Asics, the soles of the shoes are made of polyester and ground-up rice husks that absorb water faster. According to the company, they provide up to 10 percent better traction than the competition...more...
