The ‘unfair’ amputee

If you’re sad because you have no running shoes, consider the case of Oscar Pistorius. The 21-year-old South African was born without fibulas and had his legs amputated below the knees at 11 months. In his teens Pistorius took up running on Cheetahs, bowed-blade carbon-fiber prosthetics manufactured by the Icelandic company Ossur. In recent years he has earned the monikers “Blade Runner” and “fastest man with no legs” by beating able-bodied competitors; he stands a decent chance of qualifying for the Olympics.

Yet Pistorius has been ruled ineligible for Olympic competition because his prosthetics offer him what the International Assn. of Athletics Federations calls “a demonstrable mechanical advantage (more than 30%) when compared with someone not using the blade.” The association, which regulates international amateur athletics, tested Pistorius against a control group of able-bodied runners at the German Sport University in Cologne late last year and ruled in January that the blades violate a ban on any appliance “that incorporates springs, wheels or any other [advantageous] element” or “has the effect of increasing the dimension of a piece of equipment beyond the permitted maximum.” Pistorius has appealed the ruling to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland; a decision is expected within the next few weeks.

The test results make fascinating reading. While the average energy loss for an ankle joint comes in at a whopping 41.4%, the Cheetahs cost Pistorius a mere 9.3% in lost energy. They also result in substantially less vertical motion and mechanical work in lifting the body -- a phenomenon you can sort of observe watching clips of Pistorius in competition.

But there’s a wonderful story of hope and ingenuity buried in this saga of grandly titled international bodies and absurdly technical evaluations. Who, after all, measures how much it hurts an amputee’s stumps to run full-out on prostheses? And would these advantages also accrue to single-leg amputees such as Trabuco Canyon triathlete Sarah Reinertsen?

Few people have traditionally seemed so helpless, so worthy of pity, as the nonwalking disabled. Now a man with no legs is being disqualified from the Olympics because he can run too fast. That’s more than just a news-of-the-weird story. It’s a victory in humanity’s oldest battle: the fight against our own physical limitations.

Anybody who wears eyeglasses or has a mouthful of filled cavities can appreciate technology’s capacity to get the body up to average performance. The truly ambitious think about how engineering can make us better. Pistorius provides us a glimpse of a greater, less-bounded human future. That achievement may never be honored with gold, but who needs gold when you’ve got carbon fiber?