I don't know if any of you looked at the "Determined Athletes" photos on SI.com. Earlier they had a story on one of the people in the photos. His name is Oscar Pistorius. He's an Olympic caliber sprinter, and he has no legs. He's no where near the best in the world, but he is able to compete against able-bodied people who have two healthy legs. The IAAF is trying to determine whether or not Oscar can compete, or be eligible to compete, in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. They feel that his artifical limbs might give him an unfair advantage against sprinters with two functioning legs. I couldn't believe it when I read this. We try to convey the message that there is always a way to conquer physical disabilities, and that you can be do whatever an able bodied person is able to do if you are determined enough. Now, they literally want to take the ground out from beneath Oscar's "feet", by possibly telling the man he can't use his "feet" to race. The man has no legs, and has to basically run on modified pogo sticks! How is that an advantage, and how is that not discriminatory against amputees?
The IAAF is eventually going to say "Sorry, but if you have no legs you can't run." Normally, that would be a logical assessment. Just not when the reason you can't run is not because you don't have legs, but because the artificial limbs could be considered an unfair advantage (i.e. cheating). Steroids is cheating, because you have a decision in the matter. Being disabled, and attempting to run against "normal" competition by use of artificial limbs is not cheating. It's his way of life, and Oscar has no choice.
We would all have said that the day a man with no legs has an advantage over a man in a sprint with two legs would happen when pigs fly. I'm sure the IAAF would tell you that pigs are now flying, and that having no legs are better than two. This makes me absolutely sick! If this man can't run, I refuse to watch the Olympics in '08.
People working with the Olympics should worry less about this guy with no legs having an "unfair advantage", and worry more about the judges being unbiased and awarding medals to athletes who actually earned them.
Daniela Hantuchova
Jessica Gomes
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