The 'Blade-Runner' to compete in Olympics

In a follow-up to our previous blog entry about bionic athletes, Olympian hopeful Oscar Pistorius, won his appeal in front of the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court ruled that his carbon-fiber prosthetic limbs do not give him an advantage over other runners.

Blogger and disability rights activists Greg Wolbring has some interesting stuff to say about the ruling in his blog:

1) The ruling I assume will be interpreted to be a ruling against the scientific data claiming that the cheetah legs lead to an unfair advantage. The ruling leaves the door open that one could exclude a runner with prosthetics from competing in a ‘natural leg’ running event if it can be proven that the ‘artificial’ legs lead to an unfair advantage. This makes sense. So far the process of investigating theses new ‘artificial’ legs is not developed enough to be called a golden standard so its open for interpretations. Once tests are developed that are accepted as the golden standard and they show an unfair advantage one can see that that runner won’t be allowed to run against the ‘biological leg’ runners.

2) However the ruling seems to give the answer to another question. Are the Olympics about athletes who have a body adhering to the norm of the homo sapient species? In other words is the Olympics about athletes with a ‘normal biological body’? The ruling cements the view that the Olympics are not about biological bodies per se. So one can compete in the Olympics independent of whether certain biological parts are replaced by artificial parts.
If the replacement does not lead to a competitive advantage athletes with artificial body parts can compete against athletes where the body part in question is biological and not artificial.
If the replacement does leads to a competitive advantage one could see the ruling opening the door for the scenario where the athletes with artificial body parts compete against each others in the Olympics whereby the artificial body parts are treated like a pole used in pole vaulting…

Greg's blog can be found here.

Bionic Athletes stepping out of the debate and in to action

I've been fascinated with the growth in public awareness recently regarding bionic athletes. It's very interesting to watch something go from fringe and then mainstream. Almost a year ago, an article by Jamais Casico made me take a real look at what it is to be bionic when he talked about getting hearing aids in The Accidental Cyborg. Since then, I've had a heightened awareness and intrigue for the topic. Last month my husband's ESPN came in, I am admittedly not a reader of this particular magazine, but the cover was beautiful. It had bionic Little Leaguer Anthony Burruto on the cover preparing for the pitch and the debate: Bionic Athletes Is Baseball Ready for This Guy? Are You? I had to read it immediately and highlight profusely the interesting comments, while my husband watched and let it slide that I had both read and defamed his magazine before he had even cracked the issue.

The comments inside were intriguing: "...he [Hugh Herr] doesn't want his human legs back because soon they'll be archaic", "Technology...is quickly outpacing evolution, and few know how to respond", "Others will fret that some athletes might cut off a limb to gain a prosthetic advantage." This last quote has been a debate between a close friend and I for months now. I think this is a probability in the future, people are very competitive and those who were not born to compete may pay to be able to do so at any cost. She, only the other hand, is appalled at the idea, she is very open-minded about things, but this one crosses her line of what people would subject themselves to. The difference in opinions is understandable, we come from different experience and backgrounds, she had a mother who had to have her legs amputated for medical reasons and saw firsthand what life is like without limbs. Me I only know from what I read and imagine. We therefore amicably agree to disagree.

My other favorite quote however, and the one I saw on American Gladiators this week, was, "Shed a tear for the 'disabled' today. Tomorrow they might pity you." I wish I would've written this. I thought of it Monday evening when I was watching American Gladiators. This is a requirement in my home, my son is enamored with the Gladiators as any almost 9 year old should be. They showed the next competitors and who did they have...a leg amputee...a bionic athlete, John Siciliano.

My first thoughts were good for him, and my second was good for NBC or whoever in the company selected him to compete. The show, with it's overly muscular Gladitors, typically has competitors that are also overly muscular and look as if they're training for, well, to take on a Gladiator. This guy, however, was different. He wasn't overly muscular, he was a Para-Olympian Gold Medalist, he had endurance and a great determination took to take them all on. I watched and rooted for him. He didn't win, but it wasn't without a fight. The last challenge was tough and I must be honest, it was a bit sad and disheartening. No matter what his determination was, his leg was not outfitted for the Eliminator. The water challenge made the leg wet, the leg was the J-shaped Flex Foot version not good for ropes, tight-rope walking or going down the pipe, also not good with the wet leg. When it came to the end, he fought hard while the crowd cheered, he finished with pride.

Honesty again, this made me tear up, seeing him and knowing that he won't be the first, hoping others out there built like a Gladiator will want to compete also, as an equal to the Gladiators and to show up the first bionic competitor. Except the next time, they will be outfitted with prosthetics to take on the ropes, water, and the evil travelator. Bionic athletes are not going away any time soon,and as was mentioned in ESPN magazine, "Thousands of vets will return to the U.S. without limbs, and they will want the best replacements...and those vets will take their prosthetics to the blacktop and the field. Disabled athletes will get only more competitive."

So I say, good luck to the next competitor and welcome to the mainstream. We're going to be seeing a lot more of you in the future and I hope that we will all benefit from your determination and continual drive for best technologies.