The New York Times is reporting today that in the the IAAF will soon announce that Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee sprinter from South Africa, will not be allowed to run in the 2008 Beijing Olympics because his two prosthetic legs give him an unfair advantage. An editorial in today's Times argues that this is the best decision, but an interactive slideshow gives the other perspective, from the University of Miami and Ossur, who manufactures Pistorius' feet.
On the one hand, Pistorius is unable to produce the energy an able-bodied athlete produces with his or her calves, and he must exert almost twice as much energy with his thighs. On the other hand, it seems that his prosthetic feet lengthen his stride. His J-shaped feet, called Cheetahs, conserve 90% of the energy they receive on impact, much higher than the human foot by itself, but much lower than the 200% return the foot gets with the aid of the calf muscel. It seems that the determining factor against Pistorius may be that in closely monitored trials, he used less oxygen than able-bodied runners at the same speed.
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