Re: Olympics
Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:06 pm
I want the guy to be able to participate in the Olympics, heck, I've wondered why the Special Olympics have to be a whole separate event instead of having them included as though it were just another weight class or whatever.
That said, it wouldn't make any sense to have a runner compete against, say, a wheelchair racer, because those are two entirely different skill sets. Even if the chair is following a set of Olympic regulations, evaluating the skill of each athlete becomes problematic because it's comparing unlike things. I can understand (but don't really agree with) interested parties with strong backgrounds in athletic science and mechanical engineering trying to make a case that Pistorius's function differently enough from biological legs to make it a different kind of contest. I would find such an effort to be a bit suspect, maybe even petty, but I don't have the kind of education that would allow me to say one way or the other.
I remember from years past some people trying to say that his feet were an advantage because they could be improved outside of actual training, and that being countered with slow-motion video analysis claiming that the prosthetics actually made his legs sway to the outside more as he ran, which made his running less efficient and therefore not an unnatural advantage. It gets complicated, but it all really has more to do with the Olympic's strict definitions for its events.
That said, it wouldn't make any sense to have a runner compete against, say, a wheelchair racer, because those are two entirely different skill sets. Even if the chair is following a set of Olympic regulations, evaluating the skill of each athlete becomes problematic because it's comparing unlike things. I can understand (but don't really agree with) interested parties with strong backgrounds in athletic science and mechanical engineering trying to make a case that Pistorius's function differently enough from biological legs to make it a different kind of contest. I would find such an effort to be a bit suspect, maybe even petty, but I don't have the kind of education that would allow me to say one way or the other.
I remember from years past some people trying to say that his feet were an advantage because they could be improved outside of actual training, and that being countered with slow-motion video analysis claiming that the prosthetics actually made his legs sway to the outside more as he ran, which made his running less efficient and therefore not an unnatural advantage. It gets complicated, but it all really has more to do with the Olympic's strict definitions for its events.