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Prosthetic-Limbed Runner Disqualified from Olympic Games
contraba55 wrote with a link to an Engadget story on a sign of the postmodern times. Oscar Pistorius, a world-class sprinter, has been denied a shot at participating in the Olympics this year. He's a double-amputee, but he's not out because of his handicap; he's disqualified because he's faster than most sprinters. "The runner — who uses carbon-fiber, prosthetic feet — was reviewed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (or IAAF), a review which found the combination of man and machine to be too much for its purely human competitors. According to the IAAF report, the 'mechanical advantage of the blade in relation to the healthy ankle joint of an able bodied athlete is higher than 30-percent.' Additionally, Pistorius uses 25-percent less energy than average runners due to the artificial limbs, therefore giving him an unfair advantage on the track."
I bet he's kicking himself now
I stole this sig from a more creative user.
This is the first time I've heard of a handicapped person being discriminated against because they're too good. As someone who's hard of hearing, I find 99% of bias against me coming from the fact that I'm not good enough.
i am a soviet space shuttle
The runner wasn't disqualified. The artificial limbs he had been using were prohibited.
It's still possible for the runner to compete, so long as he does not use equipment that gives him an unfair advantage.
paintball
I bet that if he would have been allowed to compete some athletes would have been tempted to have certain parts of their bodies amputated and replace with more efficient artificial parts.
The 'blade' does look like a spring. When he's just walking around, one can see him bouncing up and donw a bit. So this seems reasonable. He might qualify if he used a different prosthetic technology. I just hope athletes don't start thinking about replacing their naturla legs to get 'a leg up'!
I am a transhumanist--behind it all the way. Stories like this trivialize the serious nature of transhumanism. It's not about implanting a bike or something. It's about the relief of suffering, and the unlocking of our true abilities. Read Kurzweil's latest books. Go to Transworld or the Singularity Summit. Betterhumans.com is growing in quality. Sentientdevelopments.blogspot.com feature George Dvorsky, an experienced thinker and speaker. The wise atheists among us don't need to be told the obvious--that our disabled are quickly become our first transhumans. The real developments await.
He isn't disqualified because he is faster (he isn't faster than the fast guys) its because he is more efficient. What this means is that in a 400m race he has more energy coming down the last straight than the competition does which is clearly unfair.
The only real surprise is that he hadn't worked this out and competed at the 800m, 1500m or even the 5,000m as that efficiency would really pay off.
Its an artificial aid in the same was a drugs are or riding a bike would be. Its unfortunate for the chap but its the right decision, otherwise you might as well let Marion Jones back in with a terminator suit and a jet-pack.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
SO "According to the IAAF report, the 'mechanical advantage of the blade in relation to the healthy ankle joint of an able bodied athlete is higher than 30-percent.' Additionally, Pistorius uses 25-percent less energy than average runners due to the artificial limbs, therefore giving him an unfair advantage on the track."
I guess I won't be needing these anymore.
for people just like him?
It'd be unfair either way, for him or for the normal athletes.
The summary and the truth are far from the same....
He's not out because he's "too fast"
He's out because his specific prosthetic lower legs and feet have less wind resistance than normal legs, return WAY more energy per stride than normal legs, and offer him what amounts to a competitive advantage over other runners.
If he wants to compete, he's free to do so, just not with those specific prosthesis.
He can submit others to the Committee for acceptance all day long.
This is no different than the way the olympic committee judges the use of certain swimsuits, softball bats, or any other equipment in use during the Olympics.
If you allowed a amputees who became superior athletes after their injuries to participate in the olympics and they began winning, everyone would start cutting off their legs.
Does anyone know of any downside to lopping your legs off below the knee and "installing" a pair of these?
I know someone who's feet and ankle bones are fusing/disintegrating, why shouldn't they look forward to this?
We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Oscar Pistorius will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.
I wonder how long it will be before cybernetic sports become a reality?
I mean, think about it. Soccer can be a rough sport but it's nothing compared to American Football. The game is faster and rougher and vastly supported (and in my opinion enhanced) by technology (helmets, pads, shoes, etc). But that would be nothing if players were augmented in such a way to play faster / better / stronger.
Granted, most athletes won't cut their feet off for speed enhancing powers a prosthetic might bestow just yet, but how far off are we from seeing "cybersports" develop and shift into the mainstream?
crazy dynamite monkey
First of all, he got trashed in a race against olympic caliber sprinters earlier this year. Second, as one of the previous posts pointed out, his cyborg legs were disqualified not him. If he grows new legs, he's in. Third, there are at least two problems that led to the disqualification of the prosthetics, 1. the prosthetics provide less air resistance and second, they enable the wearer to reverse his energy efficiency; meaning that he is faster at the end of the race than at the beginning. Human sprinters are usually slower at the end of the race. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=trackandfield&id=2937538 http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=2938043
We willna be fooled again!
Barry Bonds testified today before a Congressional committee that he had never used performance-enhancing double-amputation prosthetic-limb-replacement surgery, in accordance with MLB policy.
He then bounded over the table and out the door at 40mph.
The enemies of Democracy are
Special olympics are for mentally disabled athletes.
He could however compete in the Paralympics which are geared towards physical disabilities such as amputees or blind people. They are held in the same year and same city as the regular olympics. The one catch with the paralympics is that because there are so many classifications disabilities they have to rotate through which type gets to compete each year. Think: you couldn't very well have someone missing a leg and a half swimming against someone only missing a foot. I can't remember exactly how many classifications of amputees there are but I think there are enough that an athlete might only get to compete in one Paralympics that falls into their particular condition.
And I suppose PitchBot 9000 was just a modified Howitzer?
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
First, why he uses prosthetics isn't the issue. It doesn't matter how you came across the advantage, or even *why*. An unfair advantage is unfair. When asthmatics started competing well in Biathalon, other competitors started coming down with asthma, and taking beta blockers to reduce attacks. And also slow the heart rate to improve shooting accuracy. Darned if those crazy asthmatics didn't ruin it for everyone else, huh? I wonder if an asthmatic can even compete any more, of if they need a lifetime record of their disease to get the IOC to accept them, Albuterol and all.
Second, while most anyone can get a set of limbs like this runner has, actually they can't without significant sacrifice, ie, amuptation. The IOC should, for the sake of decency, not permit that. Speed skaters only had to buy a pair of clapper skates - the barrier was either money or a willing supplier, neither of which was as expensive nor life-altering as amputation for sprinters. Cyclists go through this a lot, with new equipment and all. IIRC, the NBA may have banned a certain Nike sneaker because it assisted jumping too much. Yes, define 'too much'. the IOC has.
Now, if the running community can come up with a similar prosthesis designed for non-amputees that offers the same or nearly equal advantage, then the IOC has an interesting, but easy decision to make. No. The solution isn't to give everyone else some mechanical advantage. It's to resign ourselves to the reality that life is so unfair that a dual amputee needs to use a less effecient prosthetic to compete fairly. And that way lies so much trouble. It becomes some sad exercise in statistics, engineering, and the frustation of figuring out what 'fair' is.
We know fair doesn't include using drugs. And it may not even include using hypobaric chambers to enhance training, someday. It involves runners using the same basic equipment (their natural body, shoes available to all, etc).
I wish this guy could compete. No doubt he will go back and have the limbs redesigned to be more equal to natural limbs. Then he might get a fair shake from the IOC. I hope they let him compete on equal terms.
ps- If he got waxed by Olympic-caliber sprinters with the 'hot' limbs, that doesn't really change anything. It may be that he's not that good, but let him in and surely some runner will say they should be allowed to wear a prosthesis. And another. Chaos. Pure chaos.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I'm a distance runner. I love to run and I'm pretty fast. I also like to compete. The problem comes when you start having to decide what "fair" means. Is it fair for this guy not to be able to compete? Is it fair to give him an advantage in one aspect of biomechanics since he's at a disadvantage in others?
Sports in many ways are doomed. Nothing's fair - environmental and genetic factors outside of one's control determine so much. For me, I run because it makes me feel good. I compete as a means to beating my own previous best. It's a romantic thought that sports are somehow fair and that winning comes solely from dedication and drive, but it's far from reality.
I have no idea if this guy should be allowed to compete. It doesn't sound like he's fast enough to change the final placings. In the end, the most important aspect of him trying to race is that his case will help decide the fate of a number of other runners with different, but similar, stories. I, for one, just hope he keeps competing for himself and doesn't let this rejection sour him on running altogether. In the end, everyone gets slow...I like to think I'll enjoy competing in some sort of sports for the rest of my life.
He's really been banned because his carbon footprint is too large! ;-)
Unfortunate ad placement.
"but for the purposes of a foot race, he's mechanically enhanced."
So is everyone else competing. They're wearing shoes.
Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
Speaking of deliberatly handicaping people
Just wait for those 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the constitution and the US Handicapper General...
I've read nearly all of the comments thus far, and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed in the general lack of clue. I have had a prosthetic right leg for going on 13 years now. This is my third model.
The first was pretty much carbon-fibre, carbon-carbon, and titanium. The foot provided a bit of energy return to simulate the toe-push on pronation, but was not like the real thing.
The second foot added an articulated ankle which aided on uneven terrain, but was still not very lifelike.
The third has similar foot to the first, but added a shock-absorber and a vacuum system. Although this leg has some of the best of the current technology, at the end of the day, it sucks. [1]
Understand that I can walk pretty well. Most days, or when I'm not tired from walking all day long, my gait is indistinguishable from other folks. However, even though my 'foot' does provide *some* energy return, it in no way approaches the muscular push-off normal toes provide when walking. (I expect most folks don't even know or feel that they do this any longer.) Of course, I don't have one of the sprinter foots this runner will use in competition. They are specific to that function and just wouldn't work as daily 'footwear'.
All of that is immaterial. His feet don't 'give him way more energy' than a naturally footed sprinter. They can't. The only energy they store is that which is put there by the runner. I haven't studied his running style, but I expect that he has modified his style to maximize the energy put into the foot, and that the foot unloads the energy back into his lower leg on rolling off of the toe. Now, this is unnatural and required a great deal of training before he mastered it well enough to beat footed sprinters. I call bullshit on the IAAF.
That energy is not 'free'. He's had to train to get more fit than footed runners because his gait will not be a natural bone/muscle gait.
Oh, yeah, aerodynamics my ass...
[1] Compared to a real foot.
In the immortal words of Socrates, who said; 'I drank what?'
Sadly, the original Olympics did not have any competitions for women... And I have no intentions of watching weiners flop around during a race!
No sig for the moment.
But on the other hand, it's brought to light an old thought of mine, because I've seen those springy "shoes" before: if they are so much more effective, then why don't we see more springs in regular running shoes?
I mean sure, for competitions there might be strict rules (as for racing bicycles, for instance), but for amateur or non-competition use there should be a huge benefit to incorporating springs. Maybe not as exaggerated as in disabled runners' "feet" (because care and training would be involved), but some form of booster between the shoe and the sole should be possible, as more than a mere kid's toy that is.
If people are walking, running, skating and biking across town, why not add 'bouncing' to the mix!
"Good news, everyone!"
(at least for some of them)
That is the problem: if you put springs on your shoes, you will run faster, but you will bust your knees faster too. This guy apparently has mechanical knees -- which can be easily user-serviced in case of wear and tear. I would like to see someone trying to do a meniscectomy to itself.
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048