The 24-year-old Pistorius has been the subject of debate and discussion since he began using his Cheetah Flex-Foot prostheses. Initially, he had been banned from competing in regular competition because German scientists had concluded he had a 30 per cent efficiency advantage over sprinters with actual legs. Although the ruling was overturned shortly before the Beijing Olympics, ESPN says that he failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics and the 2009 World Championships.
After setting his personal best earlier this year in Rome, he’s finally fast enough to run in the World Championships and will be the only 400m sprinter representing South Africa. Pistorius says he’ll be pleased to make it out of his preliminary heats. [ESPN]
EckyThump
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 8:44 AMI have to say, I really don’t think guys like this should be allowed to compete in regular races. It has nothing to do with prejudice either! These guys will get faster and faster until the technology finally overtakes regular runners! They need a race circuit of their own, then they can just let loose with the tech..#]
TSH
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 9:31 AMIt’s called the Paralympic Games. Held right after every Olympic Games.
EckyThump
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 10:20 AMYeah, I realise they have the ‘Paralympics’ but these guys are in a class of their own! They’re going to get faster and faster. Most disabled people will be waiting a long time before they can compete at this level..! #]
z3d
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 9:01 AMIf any of the other competitors brought sprung leg extensions that took seconds off they would be banned from competition. Why is this guy special?
Jon
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:49 PMExactly. If somebody with artificial legs developed by science can legally compete against runners with natural legs, then it’s only going to be a matter of time before advances in prostheses technology enable a human on artifial legs to run faster then any human ever could on real legs.
What happens once we reach that point? To be competitive will all runners have to amputate their legs in order to be able to use the super-prostheses?
It’s a harsh viewpoint I know, because an amputee competing against able bodied individuals is an impressive feat, and one that I welcome given that the amputee is giving them a run for their money (pun intended). But it doesn’t take a genius to see the long term implications of ‘artificial vs biological’ on the sporting field.
red t-rex
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 4:02 PMThis is along the lines of the argument put forward by Aimee Mullins in her TED talk which questions what is disabled and what is an unfair advantage. Some see her lack of lower legs a disability whereas she sees it as an advantage in some cases including the ability to change her height as required (depending on the prosthetics). She exposes the grey area in sports where you can have laser eye surgery to improve vision and some carbon fibre technologies are allowed while others are not. Just like the issue with swimming suits. Unfortunately not a clear cut issue.