Are there statistics regarding participants in Olympic running events and the brand of shoe they wear? E.g. do most victors wear Nike?
Not sure but it seems to me that many serious amateur runners do not use Nike, they use New Balance, Saucony, Brooks and Asics.
Of course the pros get endorsement deals and Nike has plenty of money to pay along with Adidas and Reebok.
That’s going to be a large factor in the statistics which the OP wants to see – since Nike has the deep pockets to sponsor so many top track stars, of course you’re going to see a lot of the top-performing track stars wearing Nikes.
It’d be interesting to see which brands of shoes the top runners would choose, if endorsement contracts were not a factor – but, it’s also something that you’ll likely never see.
You could look at what the top college runners wear, but that may also be influenced by the endorsement deals the schools make with shoe companies.
Yeah, I know that it’s true in college football; I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s true in the big college track programs.
Slow morning here, so here is the breakdown of 2012 Olympic track and field (or athletics for non-USA people) gold medalists by shoe brand. This is as best as I can tell.
Nike 28
Adidas 5
Puma 1
Li Ning 1
Reebok 1
Mizuno 1
Here they are in somewhat chronological order of them winning. Note that I excluded relays and walks. I refuse to acknowledge walking events.
w10000 Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) Nike
mSP Tomasz Majewski (POL) Nike
wDT Sandra Perkovic (CRO) Nike
mLJ Greg Rutherford (GBR) Nike
Hep Jessica Ennis (GBR) Adidas
m10000 & m5000 Mo Farah (GBR) Nike
w100 Shelly-Ann Frasier-Price (JAM) Nike
wMar Tiki Gelana (ETH) Nike
wTJ Olga Rypakova (KAZ) Adidas
mHT Krisztian Pars (HUN) Nike
w400 Sanya Richards-Ross (USA) Nike
m3000SC Ezekiel Kemboi (KEN) Nike
m100 & m200 Usain Bolt (JAM) Puma
wPV Jenn Suhr (USA) Adidas
wSP Valerie Adams (NZ) Nike
m400H Felix Sanchez (DOM) Nike
w3000SC Yuliya Zaripova (RUS) Nike
m400 Kirani James (GRN) Nike
mHJ Ivan Ukhov (RUS) Nike
mDT Robert Harting (GER) Nike
w100H Sally Pearson (AUS) Adidas
m1500 Taoufik Makhloufi (ALG) Nike
wLJ Brittney Reese (USA) Nike
w400H Natalya Antyukh (RUS) Nike
w200 Allyson Felix (USA) Nike
m110H Aries Merritt (USA) Reebok
mTJ Christian Taylor (USA) Li Ning
m800 David Rudisha (KEN) Adidas
wJT Barbora Spotakova (CZE) Nike
mDec Ashton Eaton (USA) Nike
mPV Renaud Lavillenie (FRA) Nike
wHT Tatyana Lysenko (RUS) Nike
w5000 Meseret Defar (ETH) Mizuno
w1500 Asli Cakir Alptekin (TUR) Nike
wHJ Anna Chicherova (RUS) Nike
w800 Mariya Savinova (RUS) Nike
mMar Stephen Kiprotich (UGA) Nike
Respect, mcgato, respect!
I’ve got to say that I am a bit surprised that it is that lopsided.
Adidas seem to have really scaled back their endorsements/give-aways. In the 70s, they’d pretty much give shoes to anyone, but it’s rare to see another runner wearing them (though I still use them for racing flats).