The Sports Truth

The International Association of Athletics Foundation has ruled that South African, double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius gains an unfair advantage from his prosthetic racing blades and can not compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Apparently the IAAF forgets that Oscar is at an extreme disadvantage because, well, he’s missing both of his legs, something moderately important to sprinting.

Oscar Pistorius’ prosthetic limbs give him such an unfair advantage in sprinting, he’s been banned from the 2008 Olympics, as if he were using a performance enhancing substance.

Gert-Peter Brueggemann, a German professor, conducted tests on the sprinter’s prosthetic limbs and determined that they give the 21-year old sprinter a competitive advantage. Brueggeman told Die Welt newspaper that Pistorius “has considerable advantages over athletes without prosthetic limbs.” Brueggeman did not elaborate on what these advantages might be, but one can only assume that such bonuses like immense pain where the prosthetic joins the limb, the need for maintenance on the prosthetics and the constant question of “what happened to your legs” are on the list.

Jon Sigurdsson, CEO of Ossur who developed Pistorius’ prosthetics, vehemently denied Brueggeman’s claims. Sigurdsson wrote to the IAAF saying that Pistorius “does not have a technical advantage over able-bodied athletes. Based on biomechanics alone, it is simply not possible for him or any amputee to have an advantage over the able-bodied.”

Gee, you think?