Posted: 2/19/2008 at 02:01 PM
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On January 14, 2008, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) voted to ban double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius from able-bodied events. Last week, the South African athlete took his appeal to have the ban lifted to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
German professor Gert-Peter Brueggemann conducted studies on Pistorius’ sprinting ability and came to the conclusion that Pistorius’ prosthetic legs give him an advantage over able-bodied runners because he uses 25% less energy than his able-bodied counterparts. The IAAF based its ruling to ban Pistorius on these studies. Pistorius is appealing the ban because he does not agree with the results of the studies; he says that more data needs to be gathered before a concrete conclusion can be made. “‘I am appealing for all disabled athletes. We deserve a chance to compete at the highest level’" (“Pistorius”).
80% of the events Pistorius competed in were able-bodied events, and he had planned to try out for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The full article, “Pistorius Takes Appeal to Court,” can be found at:
What do you think? Do you think the ban should be overturned? Do you think Pistorius has an unfair advantage or that more studies should be conducted to determine whether there is an advantage or not?
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While I'm sure there are all kinds of politics involved of which I'm ignorant, my response is two-fold: 1) what a fantastic problem to have! (go ahead and rip me on that one -- it just seems to beat the "you're not good enough" approach -- though clearly the end result is the same and possibly worse) and 2) Does the current study look at only a portion of body energy expenditure, or does it account for entire body expenditure? My intuition tells me that while less energy may be used within the legs, that more energy from the torso gets put in to use to make the legs do their thing (balance, motion, speed etc.). Bureaucrats aren't known for their capacity to understand the whole, thus they rarely understand the part they claim as theirs.
Thanks for the comment, DPJ! I think you make a very interesting point about energy expenditure. I'm not sure what they looked at, but perhaps that is why Pistorius thinks the studies weren't comprehensive enough! I'll have to keep up-to-date with what is happening and see if his appeal goes through or not...
Much has been made of disability and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, mostly about Oscar Pistorius and
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