In Honor of The Olympiad (8/8/08)

I remember writing some time ago about a runner who had impressed me quite a bit. His name is Oscar Pistorius and up until a few weeks ago, he was an Olympic hopeful. Hailing from South Africa, Pistorius (See my blog "Let's Get Pist") is pretty fast. Fast enough to even consider Olympic dreams.

There's just one thing:

Pistorius doesn't have legs.



Amazingly, thanks to some pretty amazing prosthetics and a lot of ability and training, he was a few seconds away from making the South African Olympic Squad.

Ultimately, he didn't qualify, coming up just short of the required times, and it's a shame. Because of his prosthetic limbs Pistorius was almost disallowed from even having a shot. The IOC (and other able bodied individuals) argued that young Oscar had an unfair advantage...

Can you believe it? For the first time, the disabled have the advantage!

In the season leading up to the Olympics, competitive advantage has been a big issue, and fake legs is only the beginning. I suppose that these arguments began after the many disgraces (and removal of medals) resulting from doping and illegal substances.

So now there are those who are asking questions about all kinds of equipment, and the tools that we are using to win races are being placed in the same league as steroids and human growth hormone:

First, there is the Speedo LZR swimsuit: A swimsuit said to have won more gold medals than any other...ever.



And then there is the vest made my Nike that is supposed to give runners an advantage:



These pieces of equipment are under as much scrutiny as Oscar Pistorius' legs.


But if this is the case, then we should abandon all equipment at the games, including shoes, shorts and sunglasses.

We should go back to doing it the way they did in olden time...

Naked and free.




Somehow, though, it would be tough to sponsor an event like that. And tough to put it on TV.

Either way, I'm excited about the games. Even though Oscar Pistorius isn't competing this year, I hope that four years from now his times have improved to the point that he can...

And I hope that he is so great that runners the world over start looking into surgery, so they can wear his shoes.