Run for glory

He is crouched in the starting blocks, tense, waiting for the shot that will set him running down the track, running to better his personal time, running towards a possible spot on the Olympic team. Oscar Pistorius, 20, of South Africa is not only hoping to post a time fast enough to qualify for his team but also to be the first amputee runner to compete in the Olympics.
Since March, Pistoruis has set record times for disabled athletes of 10.91 seconds at 100 meters, 21.58 at 200 meters and 46.32 at 400 meters and his time of 46.56 in the 400 meters in March earned him a second place against able bodied runners at the South African national championships. These times have not yet qualified him as an individual team member of the Olympic team but those marks would have won him gold medals in the equivalent woman's races in Athen's in 2004 and would qualify him as a member of the South African 4x400 meter relay team so far.

"I don't see myself as disabled. There's nothing I can't do that able-bodied athletes can do." said Pistorius, a former rugby and water polo player who also declines parking in reserved disabled spaces.

Pistorius was born without some of the bones in his lower legs and foot deformities and had both his legs amputated below the knees when he was only 11 months old. He is sponsored by Ossur and runs with the aid of their Cheetah Flex-Foot prosthetics. As such, he has run to multiple gold medals at the Paralympics and set numerous world records as well as competing successfully against able-bodied runners. Those prosthetics are now the center of an international debate: do they simply level the playing field for him, compensating for his disability or do they give him an advantage with what some call techno-doping?
The I.A.A.F. track and field's world governing body has recently prohibited the use of technological aids like wheels and springs and that would disqualify Pistorius from events that they sanction. The International Olympic Commitee allows the governing bodies of various sports to make their own eligibility rules such as those that allowed transgender athletes to compete in 2004, although it can intervene.

"We cannot accept something that provides advantages. It affects the purity of the sport. Next will be another device where people can fly with something on their back." stated Elio Locatelli of Italy, director of developement for the I.A.A.F. He has urged Pistorius to concentrate on running in the Paralympics that will follow immediately after the Olympics.

Robert Gailey, an associate professor of physical therapy at the University of Miami Medical School has said that there is no science proving that he has an advantage, only that he is competing at a disadvantage. Arguments are that his prosthetics afford him a longer stride and more spring forward while Gailey has said that his prosthetic returns only 80% of the energy returned to his leg in comparison to the 240% that a natural legs returns, allowing for much more spring for a normal runner.
The I.A.A.F. has expressed concerns also of his toppling over, interfering with other runners or injuring them. This is suddenly a concern after we have watched competitions for years involving ice skaters losing an edge on a turn and taking down several other skaters in their wake? He certainly runs with disadvantages including: cumberson starts, a lack of knee flex that inhibits his power output, loss of grip on a slick surface and rotational forces that turn his "feet" outwards when running. To counteract some of these disadvantages, he doesn't settle for second best but rather participates in a grueling regiment of training.

"You have two competing issues- fair competition and basic human rights to compete," said Angela Schneider, a sports ethicist at the University of Ontario and 1984 silver medalist in rowing. The danger of acting hastily and without scientific proof of his advantages may mean that "you deny a guy's struggle against all odds - one of the fundamental principles of the Olympics."

After all the years and funds spent to "mainstream" handicapped children within the classroom, educating parents to raise disabled children to live life to their fullest and the technological advances in support of those who are handicapped.... does segregating them from international competition send the loud message that we want you to do your best except when your best may beat the able-bodied? I agree that acting too hastily on preventing Pistorius's dream of an Olympic berth, without scientific evidence to prove he has an unfair advantage, sets not only a poor example but may unfairly deny this man the chance to live his dream.

for more, read