Oscar Pistorius has just been approved to run the 400 meter in the 2012 Olympics. Now, I'm of two minds over this. First, I think it's cool that this kid who had both legs taken when he was 11 months old, and has been into sports while growing up, can be good enough to try for the gold. Kudos to him in that respect. On the other side of the coin there is the fact (or at least possibility) that his titanium "legs" with the extra bouncy "feet" gives him an undo advantage over the other runners. Then there's the fact that less body parts means less blood/oxegen required, therefore more stamina. The Olympics are supposed to be a test to showcase the best in human ability. If you can enhance a human with artificial legs, what is the ultimate outcome? Will future athletes be allowed exo-skeletons, etc? Oh, yeah, in case you're interested, the article is HERE.
Having a son w/ prosthetics and the fact that he too had a running leg, I can tell you it really is NOT an unfair advantage. My son busted his carbon fiber running leg a few years ago. It requires a lot of work for my son to walk...LOTS of energy. Just b/c there are "less parts" does not give him the advantage of more stamina. Not by a long shot. In fact, it takes him more energy to run. Tons more energy. In school, he is the LAST one finished for any event. And not just by seconds. I mean minutes slower. So the fact that this Olympian worked hard to over come all that, more power to him. It's not the legs that gave him his strength and stamina, but years of dedication, practice and training for the moment. Prosthetic running legs do not make runners run faster. It may look like a lot of bounce but if you see them up close and how they work and feel them, you'll realize they're not. Runners have to "bounce" to get them to work right. Simply running like you or I could does not cut it. Glad the guy made it. And no, not biased b/c my son has prosthetics, just since seeing how my son's running leg works up close, I don't see how this guy has an unfair advantage to compete. Again, just my opinion.I know the views on this topic are highly diverse. Stephanie-- mom to 10
I just want to see the fastest person, if he is one of em, I think he belongs there, I mean we already have athletes doped to the gills anyway, I want records broken.
Eventually there will come a point in time when no more records will be broken. I mean, a three minute mile might be possible (eventually, one day, maybe), but there is a definite speed limit in the Universe. No matter how fast runners may get, they will never break the speed of light (that would be a 8.96e-8 minute mile :jester.
We won't be around to see it, and nothing moves faster than light that we know of, however, Man has many things we don't yet know.... So who can ever say?
