New World Record for Running 100m in Ski Boots

Sprinter crosses the line in 14:09 seconds.

Ahhhhh. So that’s what we should be doing, as we hobble back to the chalet/hotel/apartment in our ski boots, at the end of the skiing day.

We should be running, not walking.

And just to underline the point, two staff members from boot-fitting specialists Profeet have set new world records for the fastest 100m while wearing ski boots.

Both are talented athletes. And they made their job a little easier by picking the Atomic Backland for their record attempt. A super-lightweight boot designed for ski touring, it has a lot more flexibility than most. It no doubt helped that the boots were properly fitted too.

Their times are extraordinary. After a warm-up session with Dr Craig McLean of Putney Chiropractic, Max Willcocks stopped the clock at 14:09 seconds – eclipsing the previous record of 17.65 set in 2015 by Andre Ortolf. Meanwhile, Emma Kirk-Odunubi set a best-ever woman’s time of 16.86.

The records were set at Barn Elms track in south-west London.

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Max was delighted, and a little surprised: “I’d skied and toured in the Backland so I knew the boot, but the only time I had ever run in them before was when I ran away from some lifties when we were night touring.”

Meanwhile, Emma’s preparation for the Amsterdam marathon clearly did her a power of good.

“It was the powerful, driving, start phase that I found the hardest,” she said. “Maintaining high leg turnover as the fatigue hit me at 80-90m was really tough too.”

As for the rest of us…can you imagine it? In my old boots (the ones I dumped in a ski resort dustbin five years ago) I’d have managed the 100m in 14 minutes, not 14 seconds.