Monday, January 14, 2008

iaaf makes foolish decision

last june, i blogged about oscar pistorius, a south african sprinter. for those that don't remember, he is a double amputee who runs using prosthetics. he has been fighting for his right to compete with able bodied athletes.

well, today the iaaf finally ruled on his situation. you see, they've twice postponed their decision. pistorius has officially been banned from competing in the upcoming olympics. he is going to appeal the ruling, but i wonder if the hearing on the appeal will conveniently be postponed until it's too late. the cynic in me already wonders if this is why it took the iaaf so long to rule.

i'll give the iaaf credit for actually studying the problem, even using pistorius in the study. however, i'm not sure that's exactly the biggest sample size. might want to mix in a whole lot more people before you come out with such a ruling. the company that makes the product says it doesn't provide an advantage. pistorius has lost to able bodied runners, as well as defeated some. he was only 2nd in the south african trials.

hey, i think the iaaf has done plenty to try and make sure that people aren't using performance enhancing substances. really, they probably have the best system for testing. and, i think it's possible that prosthetics could give an edge. just today, i was looking @ the ncaa track & field handbook. it's track season, i was seeing if there were any rule changes i needed to be advised of. i saw mention of how they were also changing some rules to stay in line with the usatf and iaaf in the area of shoes and such that could aid an athlete. i just think that they have bungled this situation from early on by trying to ban him without studies, then only conducting one study and acting like it's conclusive. especially given the timing.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's a bummer. I wonder how one would even test to see if someone that wore those prosthetics had an advantage over those using natural legs.