Oscar Pistorius (born November 22, 1986) is a South African Paralympics runner. Known as the "Blade Runner" and "the fastest man on no legs", Pistorius is the double amputee world record holder in the 100, 200 and 400 meters events. 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. He is one of a handful of runners around the globe who could make the Olympic qualifying time for 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He is less than a second away, but he may not be allowed to run in Olympics even if he qualifies. His artificial lower legs, while enabling him to compete, have also generated claims that he has an unfair advantage over other runners.
The issue opens a fascinating debate as to what is fair, what is a 'level playing field' and what is 'open' competition. Is it fair that Ian Thorpe was born with size-17 feet that act as flippers in the pool, that Michael Phelps has an unnaturally large arm span of 200cm (compared with his height of 193cm)? Neither of these physical advantages could be achieved by training. Is it fair that men over 7ft have such an advantage in basketball because they don't have to look up to see the net? Or that Willie Carson barely had to diet to keep his weight down as a jockey? Some people are naturally more flexible than others, some are stronger than others and some have sharper vision and faster reflexes.
Far from being a case of disabled equals disadvantaged and inferior, Pistorius's condition raises the fascinating concept that disabled equals unfair advantage. His case could change the perception of disability sport forever.
There are those who would argue that if Pistorius is allowed to compete, what is to stop athletes putting springs in their shoes to create the same upsurge he enjoys? In truth, the only way they could duplicate the sensation and the effect is if they chopped off their lower limbs. That might make a few think twice, although, given the propensity of some elite athletes to chance their health in favor of enhanced performance, it is not out of the question.
Disabled or Too-Abled?
Robert Gailey, an associate professor of physical therapy at the University of Miami Medical School, who has studied amputee runners, asserts that a prosthetic leg returns only about 80 percent of the energy absorbed in each stride, while a natural leg returns up to 240 percent, providing much more spring. He further adds, “There is no science that he has an advantage, only that he is competing at a disadvantage.”
Foremost among the I.A.A.F.’s concerns is that Pistorius’s prosthetic limbs may make him taller than he would have been on natural legs and may unfairly lengthen his stride, allowing him to lower his best times by several seconds in the past three years, while most elite sprinters improve by hundredths of a second.
Pistorius, whose stated height is 6 feet 1 ¼ inches while wearing his sprinting prosthetics, says that the devices are within an allowed range determined by the length of his thighs. The peak length of his stride, he said, is 9 feet, not 13 feet as some I.A.A.F. officials suggest.
Another concern is raised by the IAAF communications director, Nick Davies, is: 'If you don't have calf muscles or shins or feet, you obviously cannot have any lactic acid there, and therefore you cannot experience the problems of tiring that other athletes do because of it. If you've got a guy who reaches top speed in the 400m after 150m but then keeps it for the rest of the race that's wrong. No one does that in athletics. Not even Jeremy Wariner is capable of doing that.'
Pistorius argues: 'I have the same ratio of blood per muscles in my body as everyone else, and the only way you'd get less lactic acid would be if that ratio was less.'
There are many disadvantages to sprinting on carbon-fiber legs, Pistorius and his coach said. After a cumbersome start, he needs about 30 meters to gain his rhythm. His knees do not flex as readily, limiting his power output. His grip can be unsure in the rain. And when he runs into a headwind or grows fatigued, he must fight rotational forces that turn his prosthetic devices sideways, said Ampie Louw, who coaches Pistorius.
“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.”
Among ethicists, Pistorius’s success has spurred talk of “transhumans” and “cyborgs.” Some note that athletes already modify themselves in a number of ways, including baseball sluggers who undergo laser eye surgery to enhance their vision and pitchers who have elbow reconstruction using sturdier ligaments from elsewhere in the body. At least three disabled athletes have competed in the Summer Olympics: George Eyser, an American, won a gold medal in gymnastics while competing on a wooden leg at the 1904 Games in St. Louis; Neroli Fairhall, a paraplegic from New Zealand, competed in archery in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles; and Marla Runyan, a legally blind runner from the United States, competed in the 1,500 meters at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. But Pistorius would be the first amputee to compete in a track event, international officials said.
Performance Unleashed
The following are three time comparisons between Pistorius's times and the Olympic winning times over the same distance:
400m
- 44.00 - 2004 Olympic gold (men)
- 46.56 - Pistorius - world record (March 17, 2007)
- 47.8 - 1928 Olympic gold (men)
- 19.79 - 2004 Olympic gold (men)
- 21.58 - Pistorius - world record (April 5, 2007)
- 22.0 - 1920 Olympic gold (men)
- 9.85 - 2004 Olympic gold (men)
- 10.91 - Pistorius - world record (April 4, 2007)
- 11.2 - 1906 Olympic gold (men)
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.
Limits and Accommodations
Historically, the I.A.A.F. has placed limits on devices that assist athletes. It prohibits an array of performance-enhancing drugs. And it does not allow wheelchair athletes into the Olympic marathon, given that wheels provide a clear advantage in speed.
But the governing body has also embraced technological advances. For instance, it permits athletes to sleep in tent-like devices designed to simulate high altitude and increase oxygen-carrying capacity.
“There is no real grounds to say he should not be allowed to compete” in the Olympics, said Juan Manuel Alonso of Spain, who heads the I.A.A.F.’s medical and antidoping commission. “We’d like to have more information and biomechanical studies.”
In 2007, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) amended its competition rules to ban the use of "any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device". It claimed that the amendment was not specifically aimed at Pistorius, and is monitoring his track performances using high-definition cameras to determine whether he actually has an advantage.
His own fear, Pistorius said, is that the governing body, which has not contacted him, will ban him on supposition, not science. “I think they’re afraid to do the research,” Pistorius, a business student at the University of Pretoria, said. “They’re afraid of what they’re going to find, that I don’t have an advantage and they’ll have to let me compete.”
“You have two competing issues — fair competition and basic human rights to compete,” said Angela Schneider, a sports ethicist at the University of Western Ontario and a 1984 Olympic silver medalist in rowing. The I.A.A.F. must objectively define when prosthetic devices “go from therapy to enhancement,” Schneider said. The danger of acting hastily, she said, is “you deny a guy’s struggle against all odds — one of the fundamental principles of the Olympics.”
Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6589763.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Pistorius
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/sports/othersports/15runner.html
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport/story/0,,2126684,00.html
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport/story/0,,1484189,00.html
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