There is an athletics event happening in the UK city of Sheffield tomorrow that seems to be attracting more interest than usual.
One of the runners in the 400m is double amputee and Paralympion Oscar Pistorius who will run against Olympic and world champion Jeremy Wariner despite the sport’s governing body, the IAAF, passing a rule in March that banned any runner deemed to benefit from artificial help.
That stance has been modified to allow South African Pistorius to compete against his able bodied peers as a part of its research into whether or not Pistorius gains such an advantage from the carbon fibre blades he uses on both legs below the knees.
Pistorius is the double amputee world record holder for the 100m, 200m and 400m and recently finished runner up in the 400m at the South African able-bodied national championships. It is a great achievement for the athlete and before the discussions on whether an athlete gains an advantage over his competitors by wearing false limbs starts up, i wish him all the best but fear that he is caught in the proverbial catch 22.
If he does well then it will close the case on ever allowing amputees wearing false limbs to partake with able bodied athletes. If he trails in at the back of the field, the same case will be closed just as firmly so as inspirational and brave as these athlete may be, they will never be sharing an Olympic athletics track with anyone else other than other Paraplegics or for research purposes.
2 comments:
Well, it was all a bit of an anti-climax at the end of the day - he was disqualified for running out of his lane.
I think the decision to let him run was a ludicrous (not to mention a politically correct) one. Either the legs give someone an unfair advantage (and surely technology will make this inevitable at some stage) or they don't, and we have to watch able-bodied people running against someone with a handicap.
Either way it's hardly the most edifying of spectacles when you bear in mind that sport should be a battle of like vs like, with everyone standing an equal chance at the start.
Unless, of course, athletics is going to become like Formula One racing - and there'll be a 'Constructor's Championship' for the team who builds the fastest pair of prosthetic legs... (or maybe more than a pair?... or buggerit, while we're about it why don't we let them do it with wheels and an engine too?)
In case it's not obvious, I wasn't too impressed at this decision!
I thought it was a bit of a freak show but the guy was always on a loser. After coming last before being disqualified shows that the paraplegic and able bodied could never compete on an athletics track.
I hope it will lay to rest all the calls to let them compete because they just are not equal, and the same goes for men and women in most sports as well.
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