Scientists are always coming up with fascinating physiological insights and developing tech and tools to give elite athletes a bit more edge. Recently, these advances appear in the form of super shoes or Wavelight pacing technology, but one of the latest developments is a prototype called the Airshield—which is pretty much what it sounds like—a drag-reduction device that allows athletes to run without air resistance.
The Airshield is being developed by Melanie Zeilinger, Dr. Andrea Carron, and Christina Spengler at Switzerland’s Like the Wind Magazine for use in an existing technique called “overspeed training.”
Overspeed training is a method that allows an athlete to run faster than they are currently able by using artificial means. This helps the body learn the neuromuscular sequences required to run at that speed. The runner should then be theoretically able to recreate those sequences and reach that level of performance without the aid of wind blocking.
“It’s an indescribable feeling. We’re used to a lot of air resistance when we run. The shield gets rid of all that. You feel as though you could fly,” says Swiss sprinter Géraldine Frey in a video created by Nicole Davidson and the university.
This new prototype works by deflecting air around the runner. The Airshield is a wheeled, wedge-shaped open-backed partition covered in transparent plastic and powered around a running track by a human-operated electric go-kart. Running directly behind the shield, a LiDAR sensor continuously measures the runner’s distance from it and wirelessly sends that information to the go-kart, which automatically speeds up or slows down to match their speed exactly. The human driver is only needed for their left-turn steering skills.
“I’ve found that with other devices, it takes two or three sessions to really be able to trust them,” says Swiss sprinter and 2022 60-meter indoor world champion Mujinga Kambundji. “With the Airshield, it only took one or two sprints. That’s very cool.”
Unlike the 1080, another device for sprint resistance, which is attached to the body, Kambundji says there’s no external influence from the Airshield, so: “The best thing is that you don’t really notice you’re training with the shield … But you do still notice that it’s really fast, that it’s overspeed training.”
While it’s easy enough to get video footage from a cyclist or drone, the multiple video cameras attached to the shield can provide running dynamics and biomechanics footage to be pored over for potential improvement later. The researchers have also been testing by using sensors in the athletes’ shoes to record the maximum speed that elite sprinters can reach unassisted, with the Airshield, and with a resistance cable—another common overspeed training tool that sprinters use.
“Looking at how they’re sprinting, we can observe it’s very different depending on whether they’re being pulled or whether they can simply run faster without air resistance,” says Spengler.
It’s unclear if or when the Airshield will be available to purchase, but Spengler and her colleagues are hoping that in the short-term, the device could give the Swiss team an edge going into the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Abby Carney is a writer and journalist in New York. A former D1 college runner and current amateur track athlete, she's written about culture and characters in running and outdoor sports for Runner's World, Sha’Carri Richardson Misses Out on 200 Final at USAs, The New York Times, and other outlets. She also writes about things that have nothing to do with running, and was previously the editor of a food magazine.
