Later this summer, some of the world’s best athletes will chase gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Through months of testing, the shoes featured here are the models that we deemed gold medal-worthy. We considered nearly 100 models across 34 brands. Those that earned recognition performed at the top of the pack in on-foot assessments from our team of 300 wear-testers and staff, and also scored highly in mechanical analysis in our shoe lab.
After we put at least 100 miles on each pair and dug through the data on specific qualities like cushioning, stability, flexibility, and ride, we picked these 29 shoes as the very best. One of them is sure to work for you, whether you’re lacing up for your first run or your first Olympics.
TRAINING SHOE AWARD WINNERS
RACING SHOE AWARD WINNERS
TRAIL SHOE AWARD WINNERS
Amanda is a test editor at Runner’s World who has run the Boston Marathon every year since 2013; she's a former professional baker with a master’s in gastronomy and she carb-loads on snickerdoodles.
Jeff is Runner-in-Chief for Runner's World, guiding the brand's shoes and gear coverage. A true shoe dog, he's spent more than a decade testing and reviewing shoes. In 2017, he ran in 285 different pairs of shoes, including a streak of 257 days wearing a different model.
