Amputee Sprinter: Is He Disabled or Too-Abled?
By JERE LONGMAN
The New York Times
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?
Here is the full article.
Should he be allowed to compete for a spot in the Olympics?
i think they should let hem compite, i would rather come on last place but have my natural legs. so his admiring and they should let him.
jb.
If he wins or sets a world record, they can put an “*” next to his time and a footnote. But definitely world records with artificial limbs should not be allowed to erase world records with natural limbs.
It would be similar to me winning the World Chess Championship with Rybka in my brain somehow. Against other people who did not have the brain implant.
So this one is easy. You allow computers to compete in human tournaments until they get good then they are banned. LOL. already happened.
What if he wins all the races he enters?
Why stop there? He can have little engines in the artificial legs and win the 100 meters in 2 seconds.
There is already a precedent in distance running. There are separate divisions for wheelchair athletes in marathons and shorter mass start road races, and they routinely beat “able bodied” runners. It should be fine for runners with artificial legs to compete in developmental events with others, but for the Olympics, national and world championship events, they should be in separate divisions.