Olympic competitors with < 2 legs
Oscar Pistorius is the subject of an article in the latest issue of IEEE Spectrum. He's a pretty incredible athlete: a sprinter born without feet who (with a pair of fancy prosthetics) is rapidly approaching Olympic times for his races (100-, 200-, and 400-meter). They seem to think that he'll be ready for the 2008 Olympics.
Another South African disabled athlete is Natalie du Toit, who is a swimmer whose left leg was amputated below the knee. She seems to be winning or placing significantly in competitions against able-bodied athletes, and is aiming for the 2008 Olympics as well. Given that she's not swimming with any prosthetic device, i don't see how they'll be able to keep her out.
I'm most intrigued by the question of Pistorius, though. We don't stop or disqualify Olympic runners from wearing fancy shoes (i think). Why limit prosthetics? From the article in Spectrum:
[I]f and when Pistorius qualifies one day for a top-level event, some able-bodied athletes and organizers may object. "There is no existing ruling on this question, either forbidding or allowing it," says Istvan Gyulai, general secretary of the Monaco-based International Association of Athletics Federations, which establishes qualifying criteria.
Given that our technology seems to advance much faster than our evolved bodies at this point, if prosthetics are allowed, could there someday be no place for able-bodied athletes? Or would able-bodied-only leagues and competitions exist, but be marginalized in the way that the current paralympics are?
And how does this play into tournaments for mental games like Chess or Backgammon? Why haven't we seen an autistic grandmaster yet?
Interesting, from your articl
Submitted by dkg on Sun, 2005-06-05 23:01.
Interesting, from your article, it sounds like the "spring advantage" might not even have an effect at all:
Fusco doesn’t buy [that springs give an advantage], saying energy return doesn’t work, except maybe on a trampoline. The average running stride is on the order of 12 milliseconds, so even if you have a shoe with spring, he says, by the time the shoe can return the energy, your foot is already in the air.
Naked was how the olympics originally started, right? I'm all for it! Back to basics, i say.
But if stride-lengthening is in fact a major concern, as we all know, there are techniques to lengthen legs surgically, so that you'd retain the advantage even in naked competition. Why hasn't that happened yet?
As for TABs in Wheelchair competitions, one has already been stripped of her title after being outed as "not disabled enough".
There's no way they're going
Submitted by jamie on Sun, 2005-06-05 04:20.
There's no way they're going to let a runner with prosthetics run. He could be wearing springs on his feet that allow him to run much faster than a normal sprinter. I'm pretty sure they don't allow fantcy; No way they'd allow rollerblades. Why should they allow spring feet? It's an unfair advantage.
The article discusses the "sp
Submitted by dkg on Sun, 2005-06-05 12:40.
The article discusses the "spring-advantage" issue, and concludes that TABs (temporarily-abled-bodies) still come out ahead, due to the active nature of muscles:
Frasure points out that a prosthetic foot is far less powerful than a natural limb. The prosthetic returns about 95 percent of the energy put into it when "loaded," whereas the muscles in a human leg will return more than 200 percent, he explains.
But Pistorius will be able to increase his stride length just by swapping in new prosthetics, which his able-bodied competitors (and one-legged competitors) have no way to do. Of course, as anyone who's tried walking (or running!) in stilts or absurdly high heels will tell you, the increased stride length comes with a coordination penalty. You'd have to train with yer new "legs".
What if we let the TABs wear prosthetics as well?
The Poweriser is a decent exa
Submitted by dkg on Sun, 2005-06-05 13:22.
The Poweriser is a decent example of what i meant by TAB prosthetics. It looks like it could level the playing field a bit...
Hmm... check out that super d
Hmm... check out that super dairy boy..! I wonder what the story behind that one is...
Interesting question regarding the fairness of prosthetics used in sporting events. I think that if Pistorius is able to achieve a qualifying time, then they should let him compete, albeit with some potential restrictions on the type of prosthetic allowable. Whether they allow it now or take some time i'm not sure but I think it will happen.
The sporting events in the Olympics and in general tend to have many constraints regarding the type of gait, movement, and equipment that can be used and some seem rather arbitrary. The speed-walking event immediately comes to mind.
Prosthetics would be just another attribute to control, and in a event like sprinting, constrained so that the type of prosthetic would have to conform to certain standards, (ie nothing that would extend stride length above X amount). These could be tweaked so that they do not provide undue advantage to someone running without them.
I think as long as the event is perceived by the competitors and public as a fair contest, then this will allowed in.
Simple question, do the top sprinters ever race without shoes? It probably provides competitive advantage to wear shoes over not, and I imagine there are regulations governing what type are allowable. There is certainly a science to constructing a track&field shoe, here's one example.
Perhaps we should require everyone to run shoeless, or better yet naked..!
Personally i think it would be interesting to see an event with fairly free range on prosthetics that could be used by anybody, whether TAB or not. As long as the criteria were fairly conceived of course and with some limits on the type of assisted device. Otherwise we might as well just go watch Nascar... :P
I think it would be fun to watch a cross country race on say something like those powerraisers..
Makes me wonder though if there are any TABs who say race in Wheelchair races? Or is it just not allowed..? f
I think that this question is being raised more frequently now that previously limited conditions of differently abled people are able to find technological or cultural means to acheive similar results or better to TABs. It actually seems like you should have more Autistic chess grandmasters, or spelling champions, or math team whizes...