In 2008, South Africa's Oscar Pistorius was barred from competing in the Summer Olympics in Beijing after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) ruled that the double-amputee runner's prosthetic legs gave him an unfair advantage over his "able-bodied" peers. This year, thanks to a series of last-minute qualifying decisions and a successful appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Pistorius and his J-shaped Cheetah Flex-Foot blades will run the 400-meter dash and 4x400 relay at the London Games, making the South African "Blade Runner" the first amputee to race in the Olympics (see him in action in the video below). Did the authorities make the right decision?
Letting Pistorius compete is a mistake: "You can't help but feel like a jerk for saying it," but Pistorius should be barred from the Olympics, says Rick Morrissey in the Chicago Sun-Times. It's unfair that other runners will have to deal with lower-leg fatigue but Oscar won't. And this is a very slippery slope. Pistorius won't win this year, but what happens when science inevitably delivers a prosthetic that lets him or another amputee "run faster, jump higher, or throw farther than able-bodied competitors"?
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