From the BBC comes a story of a track athlete, a double leg amputee, who would love to compete at the Olympic level; however Olympic rules prohibit his participation. The Olympic committee considers the prosthetic devices he wears to run, called 'Cheetahs', performance enhancing.
Oscar Pistorius is the runner's name; he currently holds 3 Paralympic world records in the 100, 200, and 400. Using the double prosthesis, Pistorius is known as 'Blade Runner':
His coach, Ampie Louw, says Oscar is "a natural champion - born that way".
The 20-year-old South African is one of a handful of runners around the globe who could make the Olympic qualifying time. He is less than a second away.
But Oscar's Olympic bid is like no other - he is a double amputee.
How good is he? His 100, 200, and 400 times are not equal to winning times at the 2004 Olympics. However, he recently finished second in the South African National Championships. That was second against non-amputee athletes. (see comparison chart to the right for Pistorius' times)
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400m times (in secs):
46.56 - Pistorius world record 47.8 - 1928 Olympic gold 44.00 - 2004 Olympic gold 200m times:
21.58 - Pistorius world record 22.0 - 1920 Olympic gold 19.79 - 2004 Olympic gold 100m times:
10.91 - Pistorius world record 11.2 - 1906 Olympic gold 9.85 - 2004 Olympic gold |
The blades are made in Iceland:
The manufacturers, Ossur, say the blades are "passive devices", which lag way behind what biological legs can do.
They insist the Cheetahs are not performance-enhancing, but simply give amputee athletes a fighting chance.
However the IAAF rules look skeptically on artificial devices in athletes:
Senior officials have "suspicions" about his performance on the Cheetahs. Oscar says his critics are only looking at the advantages of the blades - "if there are any" - and not the disadvantages. "There's never been a disabled athlete running in the Olympics," he says. There's a fear of change."
Sports by Brooks (scroll down) researched this issue more. There were suspicions at one point, that Psitorious used longer prosthesis to his advantage.
Oscar Pistorius is also noted as a suspicious athelete for using extra-long "Cheetahs," or, in his case, "Cheaters."
http://www.slate.com/id/2109441/
(Note that the article is from 2004, but it did seem relevant.)
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