pistorius gets reinstated
I haven’t talked about him in a few years but I’ve been following Oscar Pistorius, the young South Africa double leg amputee that runs fast enough to compete in able-bodied events. His goal was to compete in the 2008 (able-bodied) Olympics.
I was just expressing my consternation last week to a friend that he’d been banned based on his carbon fiber lower leg prosthetics “giving him an advantage” and being against a rule that appeared to be written by the running governing body solely to ban him.
Well, unexpectedly, he got reinstated on Friday. He still needs to cut half a second off of his 400m time before the Olympics to qualify, but if he does, he’ll be able to compete.
Check out this video of him competing in Rome. The ground he makes up starting in the last turn is pretty amazing.
May 20th, 2008 at 4:48 am
As much as I understand his desire to compete in the “real” Olympics, I think this decision is a mistake. If he wins, this will only create more controversy. In addition, you know that people are working on better prostheses, so at what point do those improved prostheses actually represent an unfair advantage? I think this sets a problematic precedent.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:05 am
The opposite of what Colin said…very cool.
May 24th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
I totally admire his guts and determination…. I hope that he is successful. Let the best man win.