just watched an interesting piece on espn's outside the lines about oscar pistorius. don't konw who he is? not surprising. not only is he a track athlete, he's one without legs. he's gaining a lot of attention because he is taking the paraolympic world by storm. super dooper fast. world record fast for para-athletes. but, he's also getting attention because he's putting up times that are comparable to "able bodied" athletes. which has people wondering if the prosthetics are aiding him.
the iaaf will vote in july whether or not to allow athletes compete with such prosthetics alongside non-prosthetic wearing athletes. the issue, again, is whether or not there is any advantage, something that can be proved or disproved through biomechanical studies.
i've seen a US para-athlete compete alongside other athletes @ a track meet. if i remember correctly, he only had one prosthesis. but he ran well and i think he long jumped, too. but, he wasn't in the fastest heats. it's my feeling that there isn't a benefit, and if there were people would expose it quickly and make a big stink about those using it (like steriods). i'm not saying that people wouldn't knowingly use an unfair advantage because it repeatedly has been shown to happen. but i don't think these are aids. studies should prove this.
two side notes:
he lives in pretoria. so does my brother, sister & their lil ones. so, they should make it a small goal to see this guy run.
they've only caught 66 (68?) athletes using steriods during the olympics
3 comments:
Yeah, I'm sure they have to put dimensional and mechanical limits on the things though. Suppose they were longer or gave more spring-back or something like that. Definitely something to find out with studying the issue.
I heard about this guy on npr last week and although I am certainly not an expert in prosthetics I think he is being unfairly criticized for being good. He lost his legs at 11 months so he has had a lot of time to become effecient at using prosthetics which may add to his success. I only half listened to the report but I alo think they argued that this was not a bionic prosthetic (I think this was identified as anything that was somehow attached to the muscles or sent eletrical impulses)so it did not give him an unfair advantage. It also takes him more energy to start races than any able bodied athlete, which puts him at a disadvatage. I think this guy works his ass off and because of that he is good. Unfortunately the better he gets, the more people will likely point to his prosthetics as being the reason, diminishing his success.
I also heard this guy's story, I think on NPR. I agree that people will continue to point to the prosthetics as an answer to his success... but I know that I wouldn't want to be the whiner who gripes about that.
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