That's a shame, because frankly, that was total bullshit. Yeah, not having legs means that your legs can't hurt, (ignoring the phantom pains and bleeding of the stumps because hey, let's be as insensitive and as ignorant to what these people go through here as possible) and prosthetics have some bounce to them, just like real freaking feet, but guess what? All that pressure from every collision with the ground that's supposed to be taken off by having actual limbs? Not dispersed properly anymore. That means the parts of the body that are there take significantly more impact than they would otherwise, causing them to hurt and wear more. It also means that the amputated parts of legs, (for reasons that should be apparent) can't get any stronger than they already are, so much more focus, (and the pain that comes with it) needs to be put into working the parts of the body that can improve during training as well. That should be obvious to anybody who runs regularly enough or knows enough about running to be involved with olympic committees. There's a reason people that run usually have legs, and acting like not having them but instead having some pieces of metal in their place is unfair is a slap in the face to how hard these people have to work even to walk, let alone run.bhtooefr wrote:Mind you, one thing that would put such a career in severe jeopardy for Emi is the Oscar Pistorius case (the one about his prosthetics, not about the one in which he's alleged to have murdered his girlfriend), which would have been going on during Emi's third year, and didn't reach a resolution until well after she would have had to make a decision about her career path. Clearly the track meets that Yamaku was competing in were not subject to IAAF rules, but university-level meets may well be subject to them.
(And, there is one fanfic on here that actually uses the Oscar Pistorius case as a plot point...)
Athletic scholarships may not have been available to her until that was resolved, which was 2008-05-16, or 1-1.5 months into university for Emi.
But- something tells me if that's really what Emi wanted to do with her life, she'd find a way. Pistorius didn't give up specifically because of people like her, and I hardly think some college boards' rejection would stop Emi from doing her thing. She'd train by herself until a decision was made, even if it meant taking on something less satisfactory in the meantime for financial support. She's one of those, as my grandpa puts it, "snot-nosed kid"s that pisses off the competition by working when they're taking off or making excuses, and if she had it in her head that running professionally really was her dream, then she'd make it work eventually.
And being Hisao alongside that for support would be pretty cool. Can you imagine how proud you'd be of that?
