Oscar Pistorius

Oscar Pistorius, an 18 year old South African school kid set a record in 2004 Athens meet for 200m. What z the big deal you may ask, only that he doesnt have two legs (it was in 2004 Athens Paralympic meet) and he did 200m in 21.97 secs. He improved his previous timing of 24.8 secodns in March 2004 to 21.97 secs in September. He is the "fastest athelete with no legs" !! Pretty impressive uh?

Dont let Speilberg or Tom Cruise read this post 'cause they will be tempted to make an "emotional drama" out of it (yes you guessed it right I hate War of the Worlds).

It was not all that emotional in the article I read, it did not speak of the battles that Oscar had to go through in claiming this spot. It was oriented towards material science aspect of it, IEEE Spectrum guys gotta write that way ;) !



So much for his disabilities people have started questioning if he should be allowed to run in races? The prostheses he uses are made of carbon composites have amazing properties of variable stifness and strength which seem to be disadvantegous to other atheletes. Though the protheses returns only 95% of the energy exerted compared to 200% by our muscles authorities have already started questioning about the calculation of the energy and questioning if he should be allowed to compete with normal people.

To qualify in Olympics the lower range for an athelete in 200m category is 20.75 secs...The world record for the same is 19.32 secs. Will Oscar be able to improve his time from 21.97 to qualify, win or set a new world record? Time will answer that question.

But the bigger questions are
- Will he allowed to compete even if he wins?
- Is his disability an advantage? (Ironical? or rather oxymoronic..."advantageous disability" ;) )..


What do you guys think? Should he be allowed to compete with normal atheletes?