A must read - Looking forward to Lake Placid & the Paralympic experience...
Cory
Can you believe that we're less than 2 months away from the Leadership
Forum conference. I'm counting the meetings I have to get through
before making the trip to Silver Bay. In the mean time, I wanted to
share an article that is sure to be of interest to the lParalympic
eaders and athletes we'll spend the day with at Lake Placid during
conference week. As we consider the achievements disabled people are
making in all aspects of life, there are obvious barriers and
perceptions that challenge their inclusion and ability to be treated
fairly and equally. See the following article from Tuesday's New York
Times to consider further...See you soon. Cory
May 15, 2007
An Amputee Sprinter: Is He Disabled or Too-Abled?
By JERÉ LONGMAN
Correction Appended
MANCHESTER, England, May 14 - As Oscar Pistorius of South Africa
crouched in the starting blocks for the 200 meters on Sunday, the
small crowd turned its attention to the sprinter who calls himself the
fastest man on no legs.
Pistorius wants to be the first amputee runner to compete in the
Olympics. But despite his ascendance, he is facing resistance from
track and field's world governing body, which is seeking to bar him on
the grounds that the technology of his prosthetics may give him an
unfair advantage over sprinters using their natural legs.
His first strides were choppy Sunday, a necessary accommodation to
sprinting on a pair of j-shaped blades made of carbon fiber and known
as Cheetahs. Pistorius was born without the fibula in his lower legs
and with other defects in his feet. He had both legs amputated below
the knee when he was 11 months old. At 20, his coach says, he is like
a five-speed engine with no second gear.
Yet Pistorius is also a searing talent who has begun erasing the lines
between abled and disabled, raising philosophical questions: What
should an athlete look like? Where should limits be placed on
technology to balance fair play with the right to compete? Would the
nature of sport be altered if athletes using artificial limbs could
run faster or jump higher than the best athletes using their natural
limbs?
Once at full speed Sunday, Pistorius handily won the 100 and 200
meters here at the Paralympic World Cup, an international competition
for disabled athletes. A cold, rainy afternoon tempered his
performances, but his victories came decisively and kept him aimed
toward his goal of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, even though
international track officials seek to block his entrance.
Since March, Pistorius has delivered startling record performances for
disabled athletes at 100 meters (10.91 seconds), 200 meters (21.58
seconds) and 400 meters (46.34 seconds). Those times do not meet
Olympic qualifying standards for men, but the Beijing Games are still
15 months away. Already, Pistorius is fast enough that his marks would
have won gold medals in equivalent women's races at the 2004 Athens
Olympics.
Pistorius's time of 46.56 in the 400 earned him a second-place finish
in March against able-bodied runners at the South African national
championships. This seemingly makes him a candidate for the Olympic
4x400-meter relay should South Africa qualify as one of the world's 16
fastest teams.
"I don't see myself as disabled," said the blond, spiky-haired
Pistorius, a former rugby and water polo player who declines to park
in spaces reserved for the disabled. "There's nothing I can't do that
able-bodied athletes can do."
An Equalizer or an Edge?
Still, the question persists: Do prosthetic legs simply level the
playing field for Pistorius, compensating for his disability, or do
they give him an inequitable edge via what some call techno-doping?
Experts say there have been limited scientific studies on the
biomechanics of amputee runners, especially those missing both legs.
And because Pistorius lost his legs as an infant, his speed on carbon-
fiber legs cannot be compared with his speed on natural legs.
Track and field's world governing body, based in Monaco and known by
the initials I.A.A.F., has recently prohibited the use of
technological aids like springs and wheels, disqualifying Pistorius
from events that it sanctions. A final ruling is expected in August.
The International Olympic Committee allows governing bodies to make
their own eligibility rules, though it can intervene. Since 2004, for
example, transgender athletes have been allowed to compete in the
Olympics.
"With all due respect, we cannot accept something that provides
advantages," said Elio Locatelli of Italy, the director of development
for the I.A.A.F., urging Pistorius to concentrate on the Paralympics
that will follow the Olympics in Beijing. "It affects the purity of
sport. Next will be another device where people can fly with something
on their back."
Others have questioned the governing body's motivation.
"I pose a question" for the I.A.A.F., said Robert Gailey, an associate
professor of physical therapy at the University of Miami Medical
School, who has studied amputee runners. "Are they looking at not
having an unfair advantage? Or are they discriminating because of the
purity of the Olympics, because they don't want to see a disabled man
line up against an able-bodied man for fear that if the person who
doesn't have the perfect body wins, what does that say about the image
of man?"
According to Gailey, a prosthetic leg returns only about 80 percent of
the energy absorbed in each stride, while a natural leg returns up to
240 percent, providing much more spring.
"There is no science that he has an advantage, only that he is
competing at a disadvantage," Gailey, who has served as an official in
disabled sports, said of Pistorius.
Foremost among the I.A.A.F.'s concerns is that Pistorius's prosthetic
limbs may make him taller than he would have been on natural legs and
may unfairly lengthen his stride, allowing him to lower his best times
by several seconds in the past three years, while most elite sprinters
improve by hundredths of a second.
"The rule book says a foot has to be in contact with the starting
block," Leon Fleiser, a general manager of the South African Olympic
Committee, said. "What is the definition of a foot? Is a prosthetic
device a foot, or is it an actual foot?"
I.A.A.F. officials have also expressed concern that Pistorius could
topple over, obstructing others or injuring himself and fellow
competitors. Some also fear that, without limits on technological
aids, able-bodied runners could begin wearing carbon-fiber plates or
other unsuitably springy devices in their shoes.
Among ethicists, Pistorius's success has spurred talk of "transhumans"
and "cyborgs." Some note that athletes already modify themselves in a
number of ways, including baseball sluggers who undergo laser eye
surgery to enhance their vision and pitchers who have elbow
reconstruction using sturdier ligaments from elsewhere in the body. At
least three disabled athletes have competed in the Summer Olympics:
George Eyser, an American, won a gold medal in gymnastics while
competing on a wooden leg at the 1904 Games in St. Louis; Neroli
Fairhall, a paraplegic from New Zealand, competed in archery in the
1984 Olympics in Los Angeles; and Marla Runyan, a legally blind runner
from the United States, competed in the 1,500 meters at the 2000
Olympics in Sydney. But Pistorius would be the first amputee to
compete in a track event, international officials said.
A sobering question was posed recently on the Web site of the
Connecticut-based Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
"Given the arms race nature of competition," will technological
advantages cause "athletes to do something as seemingly radical as
having their healthy natural limbs replaced by artificial ones?" wrote
George Dvorsky, a member of the institute's board of directors. "Is it
self-mutilation when you're getting a better limb?"
Limits and Accommodations
Historically, the I.A.A.F. has placed limits on devices that assist
athletes. It prohibits an array of performance-enhancing drugs. And it
does not allow wheelchair athletes into the Olympic marathon, given
that wheels provide a clear advantage in speed.
But the governing body has also embraced technological advances. For
instance, it permits athletes to sleep in tent-like devices designed
to simulate high altitude and increase oxygen-carrying capacity.
As disabled athletes improve their performances, the I.A.A.F. is
certain to be faced with more decisions about accommodating them. Last
February, Jeff Skiba, who has one leg amputated below the knee,
competed in the high jump at the United States indoor track and field
championships.
Some I.A.A.F. officials say Pistorius's application should not be
treated dismissively. Although he would not be considered a medal
candidate, his appearance at the Beijing Games could provide an
inspiring story.
"There is no real grounds to say he should not be allowed to compete"
in the Olympics, said Juan Manuel Alonso of Spain, who heads the
I.A.A.F.'s medical and antidoping commission. "We'd like to have more
information and biomechanical studies."
His own fear, Pistorius said, is that the governing body, which has
not contacted him, will ban him on supposition, not science.
"I think they're afraid to do the research," Pistorius, a business
student at the University of Pretoria, said. "They're afraid of what
they're going to find, that I don't have an advantage and they'll have
to let me compete."
Pistorius, whose stated height is 6 feet 1 ¼ inches while wearing his
sprinting prosthetics, says that the devices are within an allowed
range determined by the length of his thighs. The peak length of his
stride, he said, is 9 feet, not 13 feet as some I.A.A.F. officials
suggest.
There are many disadvantages to sprinting on carbon-fiber legs,
Pistorius and his coach said. After a cumbersome start, he needs about
30 meters to gain his rhythm. His knees do not flex as readily,
limiting his power output. His grip can be unsure in the rain. And
when he runs into a headwind or grows fatigued, he must fight
rotational forces that turn his prosthetic devices sideways, said
Ampie Louw, who coaches Pistorius.
"The I.A.A.F. has got no clue about disabled sport," said Louw, who
has coached Pistorius since 2003.
Insufficient credit is given to Pistorius's resolve in the weight room
and on the track, Louw said, describing one intense workout that
requires him to run 350 meters in 42 seconds; 300 meters in 34.6
seconds; 200 meters in 22 seconds and 150 meters in 15.4 seconds. "The
kid is a born champion," Louw said. "He doesn't settle for second
best."
Having worn prosthetics since infancy, Pistorius did not have to
adjust to artificial legs after he began competing, as many disabled
athletes do. He won a gold medal in the 200 at the 2004 Paralympics in
Athens.
"These have always been my legs," he said. "I train harder than other
guys, eat better, sleep better and wake up thinking about athletics. I
think that's probably why I'm a bit of an exception."
One who is attempting to broaden the definition of an Olympic athlete.
"You have two competing issues - fair competition and basic human
rights to compete," said Angela Schneider, a sports ethicist at the
University of Western Ontario and a 1984 Olympic silver medalist in
rowing.
The I.A.A.F. must objectively define when prosthetic devices "go from
therapy to enhancement," Schneider said. The danger of acting hastily,
she said, is "you deny a guy's struggle against all odds - one of the
fundamental principles of the Olympics."