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Abilities
Buzz, May 22, 2008
Joshua Robinson
and Alana Schwarz reported in the New York Times on Saturday,
May 17th that when an international court ruled Friday that a
double-amputee sprinter from South Africa was eligible to
compete in this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, the stage was
set for disabled athletes to meet their own trailblazer.
The watershed ruling made the runner, Oscar Pistorius, the first
amputee to successfully challenge the notion that his
carbon-fiber prosthetics gave him an unfair advantage and
assured his right to race against able-bodied athletes in the
Olympics, should he qualify. Previously barred from competing in
such races by track and field’s world governing body, Pistorius
will continue to stoke the debate over the competitive issues
created by evolving technology in sports.
The ruling’s direct impact on disabled athletes could be
limited, in part because Pistorius, 21, still must post a time
fast enough to qualify for the Games. Yet his victory Friday in
the Court of Arbitration for Sport sent a message that could
long resonate among Paralympians.
“I am extremely shocked that the C.A.S. has made that decision,”
said Marlon Shirley, a single amputee who holds world records in
the 100 meters, the 200 meters and the long jump in his
Paralympic class. “It’s a very brave decision and one that’s
definitely going to revolutionize sports.”
Ann Cody, a seven-time Paralympic medalist for the United States
in basketball and track and field who sits on the governing
board of the International Paralympic Committee, added: “It
sends a message. People with disabilities can see people like
them compete, and they’ll connect. They’ll say, ‘Maybe I can do
that, too.’ ”
In overturning a ban imposed by the International Association of
Athletics Federations, track and field’s governing body, the
court deemed that there was not enough evidence to prove that
Pistorius’s flexible j-shaped blades, attached below his knees,
gave him an advantage.
“It’s not just about me,” Pistorius said in a telephone
interview from Milan. “It’s about the extra opportunity for
amputee athletes.”
Pistorius must meet the qualifying standard of 45.55 seconds in
the 400 meters to gain an automatic berth in Beijing (or 45.95
seconds for a provisional spot); his current personal best is
46.33, according to his coach, Ampie Louw. With 64 days left, he
is in a race to race.
Several Paralympic athletes and officials said that the court’s
ruling would probably not affect many athletes, at least
immediately. A large portion of athletes in the Paralympic
Games, which take place two weeks after the Olympics, compete in
wheelchairs; those who do not rarely reach the elite levels that
Pistorius has. And the wording of the ruling appeared to caution
against extrapolation, clearly stating that it “has absolutely
no application to any other athlete, or other type of prosthetic
limb. Each case must be considered by the I.A.A.F. on its own
merits.”
“I knew they would have to do it somehow to protect themselves,”
said Brian Frasure, a single amputee who will try out for his
fourth United States Paralympic team in June.
Frasure also works for Ossur, the company that designed and
manufactured the Cheetah Flex-Foot, the prosthetics that
Pistorius and many other athletes use.
“In the world of prosthetics, with so many variables, they need
a stipulation for down the road, when we come to the day and age
when bionics come to the fore,” Frasure said. “If they say it’s
O.K. for all amputees to compete in the Olympics, they would be
setting themselves up for even more controversy, more than Oscar
dealt with, in the future.”
The I.A.A.F. thought it had made that stipulation when it barred
Pistorius in January, despite clearing him to compete with
able-bodied athletes last spring; he ran at international meets
in Rome and Sheffield, England.
Disabled athletes have competed in the Olympics before — for
example, the American Marla Runyan, who is legally blind, made
the final of the 1,500 meters at the 2000 Sydney Games. Natalie
Du Toit, whose left leg was amputated above the knee seven years
ago, will swim for South Africa in Beijing.
But very few have raised the issue of whether their disability,
or their compensation for a disability, presents an advantage.
One was Neroli Fairhall, a paraplegic archer from New Zealand,
who competed in the 1984 Olympics while in her wheelchair; there
was some question as to whether the chair provided her better
stability than archers standing on legs, but she was allowed to
compete.
Pistorius was born without the fibula in his lower legs and with
defects in his feet, and his legs were amputated below the knee
when he was 11 months old. He went on to set Paralympic world
records in the 100, 200, and 400 meters, but did not draw
attention until he started competing with able-bodied athletes
in South Africa in 2004.
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