Preamble: It used to be that athletes were the toughest guys on the block. They used to be role models that were disciplined, in peak health, righteous even. Today, however, we are in the the era of petulant, diva-like athletes. Consider the following remarkably unbelievable story of Oscar Pistorius. Mr. Pistorius, affectionately known as the “Blade Runner” is a double-amputee (below the knee) track athlete. As a result of a congenital birth defect, both of his legs were amputated below the knee at a young age (details at his Wikipedia page). Since then, he’s played rugby, water polo and tennis eventually settling in to track athletics. While Pistorius is a world record holder in disabled athletics, “the fastest man on no legs,” he has professed his desire to run in regular races, including the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Now here’s the rub. The IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) has recently decided that his prosthetic legs give him an unfair advantage. This, after the IAAF actually invited Pistorius to run in able-bodied races. Apparently the issue was raised by able-bodied athletes who felt that Pistorius’ carbon-fiber prosthetics (called Cheetahs, and made by Össur) give him an unfair advantage during races. Forgive me, but the brain addles at the thought that an athlete with both legs could seriously feel threatened by a guy with none. Granted, technological advances (in materials science and bio-mechianical design) mean that the potential exists for prosthetic limbs to outperform their human counterparts, nevertheless, we’re talking about a double amputee here. Track and field events are supposed to exhibit the triumph of the human spirit over physical and mental adversity and when is that more evident than when a disabled individual participates or, God forbid, wins a race with able bodied competitors.
Apparently, the profile of the prosthetic legs means there is less air-resistance when compared to human leg. Legged athletes claim that Pistorius does not suffer from the same lactic-acid build-up in the muscles that they do. They also claim that Pistorius is fastest at the end of the race as opposed to the beginning when normal runners achieve their highest velocities (which apparently is true). Little mention is made of the fact that Pistorius is at a greater disadvantage when track conditions are not ideal (moisture greatly affects traction on the prosthetic limbs) and that it takes more energy for Pistorius to get going in the first place. But I reiterate, the man is missing two legs. So what if medical advances mean that Pistorius’ artificial limbs could eventually see him out-run his able-bodied competitors? It would be a triumph of the human spirit and technology. Elio Locatelli, director of development for the IAAF says, “We cannot accept something that provides advantages. It affects the purity of the sport. Next will be another device where people can fly with something on their back.” Besides “purity” reeking of some Nazi fantasy, Locatelli is obviously in the camp that believes only the prototypical human form can compete in a normal race. It wouldn’t surprise me if he also secretly thought that women and transsexuals sully the image of athletics. THIS article has a nice graphic on how Pistorius’ Cheetah legs work as compared to a normal athlete. I firmly believe that the human body and technology are converging and that in fifty years or so, we’ll be seeing exo-skeletons amplifying the power of the able bodied and disabled alike. To me, future athletics will be a cross between Formula 1 and regular track & field. Engineers will set to work on the best tech to help the athlete while the individual will continue to refine his or her physical prowess and mental discipline. Anyway, I digress, the point is, the damn cripple should be allowed to race in whatever event he feels like, super-carbon-fiber legs or not.
It may Pistorius that is missing a set legs but clearly, the onus is on the able-bodied athletes and the IAAF to grow a set of balls. Are you with me? Can you think of similar examples in other sports? If so, let us know in the comments.
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I cant believe them. What a bunch of schmucks. Youd think they would want someone who is able to overcome his disabilities to race with those who have none. I cant believe they feel he has an unfair advantage!!! We all talk about how we want to get rid of discrimination, and here is a guy who has the guts to compete against those able-bodied athletes and they shoot him down. Guess they truly want to keep everyone in their own categories.
Agreed Dagmar. I guess everyone has to stay in the categories they were born into. It reeks of what the caste system has become today (as opposed to originally when it was possibly to move out of your caste or indeed, move your caste into a “higher bracket.”
In this day and age with rocket powered legs, testosterone enhanced balls, and what gives not, it is nice to see men play wihtout any mechanical advantage.
There are many advantages to having mechanical body parts rather than natural ones. Take, for example, a man whose legs run on jet fuel. Are you going to even have a standing chance in a race? What about a man with electrified lightning bolt hands? Are you about to get into an arm wrestling match with him?
I think not.
Sure, maybe right now, they don’t have jet-fueled legs or electrified lightning bolt hands, but what about when they do? What about when laser eye sockets can had in the back alley for $500 a pair? What about when Energizer hearts can be bought in your neighborhood Walgreens?
Are you going to say well natural athletes have an advantage? Because it’s a lie, and you know it.
Are you going to try to stop them then from using mechanical parts? What’s the line? What will you accept and what won’t you? We need to stop these prostetho-junkies dead in their tracks right now. Don’t even let it go further, or in ten years, the Olympics will be overrun by robots.
In the end, these people aren’t DIS-abled.
No, sir. They’re EN-abled.
[...] here for full story Author Jovani Montoya Comments [...]
I fully believe it is impossible to build a non-powered system to replace legs that will be more efficient than that which we have from birth; legs have been honed from several millennia of evolution. They cannot be beat. The prosthetic legs convert kinetic energy (supplied by the runner’s body) into potential energy and then back during the stride, but they certainly don’t do it better than real legs. Since there is no external infusion of power (by steroids or, say, pneumatics) it’s ludicrous to believe the system can outperform human legs.
I agree, gas-powered rocket boots (like some Russian developed a while ago) would give an advantage to the person using it. A carbon fiber spring-system appendage will not. The statement that the athletes are “EN-abled,” while eloquent and seemingly powerful, is, in fact, moot and incorrect.
The only way to determine if this guy has a advantage/disadvantage is to answer this simple question. A free pizza goes to who ever answers correctly first.
IF this guy had legs would he:
a.) be able to run faster
b.) run at the same speed
c.) not be as fast
I found an equation on wikipedia for solving this problem and came up with some interesting results.
(speed of runner)initial (speed of runner)final
———————— = ———————–
(number of legs)initial (number of legs)final
According to this, he is at a huge disadvantage by not having legs. If fact, even if he grew only one leg he’d be able to finish the race before it started.
So now I’m stumped. (I’m surprised nobody used that one)
The way I figure it is since no one can answer that question (no pizza), he shouldn’t be allowed to race. People are prohibited from doing the things they want for all kinds of reasons and this seems a good as any. “Sorry man, I’d let you enter this race except your legs were designed by composite engineers and are made of space age materials.”
Midgets can’t play in the NBA, people with Down Syndrome can’t join Special Forces, monkeys can’t skateboard. Of course we COULD give the midgets 4ft. platform shoes and put the “Special” Forces guy in charge of killing rabbits, just so they can compete with unaided folks in number of 3 pointers and kills, but why would anyone want that?
Complete randomness aside, just the fact that this guy might have an advantage is a good enough reason to prevent him from the Olympics. It wouldn’t be fair to all the other runners who’ve dedicated there live to the sport. Plus, with the war going on, he shouldn’t have any problems finding competitors.
I don’t agree he has an advantage, nor do I see how it is possible with an unpowered spring-system set of legs. That said it can’t be proven so maybe you’re onto something.
Finally, this is by far the absolute best comment ever posted on the BackWomb and I’ve gotta find a way to give you credit.
In the news about a week ago:
Former US Marine becomes the first woman to have a robotic arm attached that she can control with her thoughts. Absolutely incredible.
I suppose the Reverend Gonzo would forbid her from participating in arm-wrestling competitions.
BBC article HERE.
There you go. Never say something is impossible. The brain, hell even the body, is simply an extremely complex electrical circuit. Once we are able to understand it, we will be able to emulate it, and once we can emulate it, we’ll make something stronger.
My personal belief is that we won’t make a purely robotic system which will replace organic systems. However, there are something that the brain and the body is better at, and there some things computers are better at.
As I’ve studied neural networks, this is what I know, and I’ll explain.
Computers are good at serial processing (ie: brute-force cracking passwords, doing repetitive but defined (programmable) tasks.)
The brain is good at parallel tasks (ie: taking an image and recognizing it for what it is.) We finally have figured out OCR (optical character recognition) but even that isn’t perfect. We are still light years away from good quality facial recognition, speech recognition, etc. But these are all things the brain does extremely easily, as the brain is simply a massive neural network, where each neural node stores only a small amount of data, but all together it works really quickly.
I believe what will happen it scientists will combine brain power and microprocessor power. Once the microprocessor can read and write electrical pulses to the brain that make sense to the brain, it’s simply a matter of training the person to use the chip (as opposed to training the chip to react to analog waves), and it’s easier to train a brain than a computer.
The next two decades in neurobiology is going to be amazing.
Looks like Oscar Pistorius will not be able to compete is the coming Beijing Olympics as scientific tests prove he has a significant advantage over able-bodied athletes with his Cheetah prosthetic legs. I don’t believe a word of it (perhaps I’m being haughty).
BBC article HERE.
And ….
Right again.
The Reverend speaks nothing but the truth, the absolute truth, and nothing but the truth.
I am still in disbelief over the fact it is possible to build a non-powered prosthetic limb that out-performs the human leg. The human leg is a device several millennia in the making. Then again, in addition to simple locomotion, it can also feel, grapple and more so perhaps a direct comparison of solely its mobility vis a vis the Cheetah is incorrect.
With that logic, you’re also saying that because the human brain has been evolving for millions and millions of years it would be impossible to create a computer which is more efficient at certain tasks than the brain.
Here’s the thing: While the human leg and the human brain have been evolving for millions of years, they have evolving with a specific goal in mind: survival of the human species. Therefore, our leg is different than, say, a cheetah’s leg. A cheetah requires speed for survival. Human don’t need as much speed, as our energies have gone into our brains and our hands (the opposable thumb).
Therefore, it is entirely possible that a new prostethic leg can be created which is better than the human leg at one specifc task.
As for non-powered, what about the heart? What about when we are able to extract power from the bloodstream? (It’s not so far off as you might think: http://www.livescience.com/technology/070813_paper_power.html)
What about when we are able to make machines efficient enough to run off of the amount of power that the heart produces?
We will without a doubt be able to create machines that will work better than natural parts at specific tasks. Given that survival is no longer a major issue for our species (at least on an individual level) the evolution of these parts aren’t really that important, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it slowly stops, given that we are countering survival of the fittest by having better medicine, better doctors, etc.
Nice website!!
well i think he is an inspiration to all the dis-abled athletes and is really somebody to look forward
He certainly is an inspiration. It’s good to know that his appeal was granted and that he may try and qualify for the Beijing Olympics. It would be a triumph if he could actually make it but he’s got some way to go to improve his time. Nevertheless, I’m happy the appeals committee saw reason.
Thank you! You often write very interesting articles. You improved my mood.
I cant believe it!!!! im only 15 and think it totaly rubish!!!!!! if they shouldnt of let him run against them! why is it that they always have a problem after they have achieve such a great feet????
it they think he has an advantige why dont they chop of their legs then???? *cough cough
So amazing , why dont you write more about ladyboys!