Should Amputees be Allowed to Compete at the Olympics?

[Kuan]

Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/sports/othersports/15runner.html?ex=1180843200&en=6936d9d4656351bb&ei=5070

An Amputee Sprinter: Is He Disabled or Too-Abled?
Craig Owen

“I don’t see myself as disabled,” said Oscar Pistorius, a former rugby and water polo player. “There’s nothing I can’t do that able-bodied athletes can do.”

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By JERÉ LONGMAN
Published: May 15, 2007

Correction Appended

MANCHESTER, England, May 14 — As Oscar Pistorius of South Africa crouched in the starting blocks for the 200 meters on Sunday, the small crowd turned its attention to the sprinter who calls himself the fastest man on no legs.

Pistorius wants to be the first amputee runner to compete in the Olympics. But despite his ascendance, he is facing resistance from track and field’s world governing body, which is seeking to bar him on the grounds that the technology of his prosthetics may give him an unfair advantage over sprinters using their natural legs.

His first strides were choppy Sunday, a necessary accommodation to sprinting on a pair of j-shaped blades made of carbon fiber and known as Cheetahs. Pistorius was born without the fibula in his lower legs and with other defects in his feet. He had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. At 20, his coach says, he is like a five-speed engine with no second gear.

Yet Pistorius is also a searing talent who has begun erasing the lines between abled and disabled, raising philosophical questions: What should an athlete look like? Where should limits be placed on technology to balance fair play with the right to compete? Would the nature of sport be altered if athletes using artificial limbs could run faster or jump higher than the best athletes using their natural limbs?

Once at full speed Sunday, Pistorius handily won the 100 and 200 meters here at the Paralympic World Cup, an international competition for disabled athletes. A cold, rainy afternoon tempered his performances, but his victories came decisively and kept him aimed toward his goal of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, even though international track officials seek to block his entrance.

Since March, Pistorius has delivered startling record performances for disabled athletes at 100 meters (10.91 seconds), 200 meters (21.58 seconds) and 400 meters (46.34 seconds). Those times do not meet Olympic qualifying standards for men, but the Beijing Games are still 15 months away. Already, Pistorius is fast enough that his marks would have won gold medals in equivalent women’s races at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Pistorius’s time of 46.56 in the 400 earned him a second-place finish in March against able-bodied runners at the South African national championships. This seemingly makes him a candidate for the Olympic 4x400-meter relay should South Africa qualify as one of the world’s 16 fastest teams.

“I don’t see myself as disabled,” said the blond, spiky-haired Pistorius, a former rugby and water polo player who declines to park in spaces reserved for the disabled. “There’s nothing I can’t do that able-bodied athletes can do.”

An Equalizer or an Edge?

Still, the question persists: Do prosthetic legs simply level the playing field for Pistorius, compensating for his disability, or do they give him an inequitable edge via what some call techno-doping?

Experts say there have been limited scientific studies on the biomechanics of amputee runners, especially those missing both legs. And because Pistorius lost his legs as an infant, his speed on carbon-fiber legs cannot be compared with his speed on natural legs.

Track and field’s world governing body, based in Monaco and known by the initials I.A.A.F., has recently prohibited the use of technological aids like springs and wheels, disqualifying Pistorius from events that it sanctions. A final ruling is expected in August.

The International Olympic Committee allows governing bodies to make their own eligibility rules, though it can intervene. Since 2004, for example, transgender athletes have been allowed to compete in the Olympics.

“With all due respect, we cannot accept something that provides advantages,” said Elio Locatelli of Italy, the director of development for the I.A.A.F., urging Pistorius to concentrate on the Paralympics that will follow the Olympics in Beijing. “It affects the purity of sport. Next will be another device where people can fly with something on their back.”

Others have questioned the governing body’s motivation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/sports/othersports/15runner.html?ex=1180843200&en=6936d9d4656351bb&ei=5070

[Kuan]

Here's a graphic:

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/sports/20070514_RUNNER_GRAPHIC.html

[Botnst]

If they can cut it.

[dkveuro]

His lower limbs...carbon fibre blades, would be lighter than his natural limbs.
Gives him an advantage of muscle over limb/weight movement.

As stated, he is taller than he would naturally be too.
I see this as the thin end of the wedge.

Let him compete in events that don't have advantage by his legs .

I don't disagree with his taking part in sport, just even the field...after all, they check for drugs.



.

[TheDon]

special olympics?

Im going with the above statement.. Carbon fiber legs = advantage

[t walgamuth]

i say let him run.

if he had had legs to begin with and he were faster with the fiberglass ones, then they could logically say the new legs provide an advantage.

they might even logically argue it were an advantage if he were simply faster than anybody else by a large margin.

neither is the case so far.

so i say let him run.

if he wins they can put an asterisk on his record.

hell, they can put an asterisk on it even if it is not a record.

if he were competing in a contest in which being the lightest won, then they can say...."he cheated by removing part of his body". since he is competing in a foot race....

oooooohhhhhhhhh i see......no feet.....technically they are right.

no, really, i disagree with them.

let him run. the fiberglass things are his feet.

but it should be against the rules to cut your feet off and add fiberglass ones. because someone might actually do that to win.

tom w

[MTI]

gee, the handicapped, they're so lucky . . . they even get all the good parking spaces . . .