“Krass! Now I am on the Guinness World Records list!”, cheers Johannes Rydzek after he has managed the steepest 50 metre sprint in the world. On his record, he relied on adidas shoes with our rubber soles.
When you have a long-standing technology partnership like ourselves and adidas, there’s no better way to celebrate it than by establishing a brand-new world record.
That's precisely what took place with the ContiGripRun on Friday 22 September in 2017, which demonstrated the stellar performance of running shoes with Continental soles in the steepest 50-metre sprint in the world.
The spectacular stage in front of a breathtaking mountain panorama: The Heini-Klopfer ski jump in Oberstdorf. This is the place where two top athletes made their world record attempt.
With six world championship titles in Nordic combined, Johannes Rydzek is already a world record holder. But Rydzek chalked up another for the history books by setting a record in the world's steepest 50-metre sprint, officially recognised by Guinness World Records.
27.69 seconds, 72 metres, 37 degrees: Theses are the numbers that formed the frame: In just 27.69 seconds, the determined young athlete from Oberstdorf sprinted up the famous 72-metre-high hill at a continuous gradient of at least 37 degrees.
It was a magnificent achievement made possible with our know-how for maximum grip.
"Especially the last ten metres just before the top of the hill were incredibly hard. The shoes gave me enormous support here – especially on the smooth surface the sole gives me the decisive advantage," Rydzek said afterward.
Guinness World Records had specified a time of less than 35 seconds for the official classification of the first world record for the fastest 50-metre uphill run with a gradient of over 37 degrees. The ski jumping hill in Oberstdorf was prepared specially for the occasion, with a running surface and extensive safety precautions for the runners.
The shoes gave me enormous support here – especially on the smooth surface the sole gives me the decisive advantage.
Johannes Rydzek
Since 2011, rubber compounds from our tyre specialists at Hanover have been ensuring extraordinary success with adidas shoes – our soles helped set three marathon world records between 2012 and 2014.
In the ContiGripRun world record attempt, the two athletes took part in a very different type of challenge – short but steep – to prove the performance of our technology in adidas running shoes.
Competing against Rydzek was Alexander Schauer, a parkour runner from Vienna. Schauer put in an exceptional performance which was only four seconds slower than Rydzek.
Also present at the event was the official Guinness World Records judge, Paulina Sapinska from London, who confirmed the new world record after four runs. Rydzek’s achievement has now been immortalised in the record database of Guinness World Records – and remains unbroken.
We are very pleased that after the great evaluations of our current winter tyres, the adidas shoes with our outsole are now also successfully performing and the world record in Oberstdorf has been achieved,
Dr. Konstantin Efimov, Material and Process Development at Continental Tyres
