Nike’s two-hour marathon project reveals technological inequities in sport

This weekend, with technological help, three runners will try to break the two-hour marathon barrier. This is a good time to ask who technology is for

This weekend in Italy three elite athletes sponsored by Nike, the athletics company, will, conditions permitting, attempt to break two hours for running a marathon, 26.2 miles. The current world record is 2:02:57, set by Dennis Kimetto of Kenya in Berlin in 2014. Shaving three minutes from the marathon record would be an incredible accomplishment. The previous drop of three minutes has taken about 16 years.

Nike's Breaking2 project is more than just a slick marketing exercise for a new running shoe. The effort will tell us something important about how fast elite human athletic performance might be improved. But the project should also force us to ask some challenging questions about human enhancement and who it is for.