I first started hearing about and talking to people about Oscar Pistorius before the Beijing Olympics when he ran into trouble with the IAAF about the possibility of him competing in the Beijing Olympics. He's a world class South African runner who has been running and competing in various sports since high school. He ran into trouble with the IAAF because they believed that he had an unnecessary mechanical advantage over the other competitors: His prosthetic legs.
Pistorius was born without the fibula bone in both of his legs, and had his legs amputated between the knee and ankle when he was 11-months old (a fairly common procedure for fibular hemimelia). He's been competing in track events on his Cheeta Flex Foot prosthetic limbs, and that's what the IAAF was concerned about, but only after they changed a ruling to disallow "any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device". This ruling was only made after the IAAF had already invited him to compete in multiple events of theirs (most of which he didn't win).
After some pressure from experts in the US (Physicists among them) and his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, he was allowed to compete, but didn't make the team that year.
However, Imagine my surprise to hear his name listed on the South African team this year. Whether he wins or not, he's already proving a technological marvel. He's using technology not just to get some semblance of function out of damaged limbs, but to overcome his descriptor as a "disabled" man. He's already pushed the limit of our conception about what that word means and blown it out of the water. This is a man who stands as a symbol not just for disabled people everywhere, but for all people. But perhaps his own words are better suited to explain this.
"You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have."
@8573gs9: It's not quite the same thing. It's more like Stephen Hawking building an exoskeleton that makes him stronger than a professional weight lifter. Even then, Stephen Hawking was brilliant before being disabled. It's always exciting and cool to see how people with disabilities overcome those disabilities, but what Pistorius is doing is even more-so because his method of overcoming the disability makes him somewhat more able than even someone without a disability. What this is is not just a case of overcoming the disability, it's becoming more than you were before the disability and somehow being strengthened beyond what society would consider normal ability through that method and determination.
I first started hearing about and talking to people about Oscar Pistorius before the Beijing Olympics when he ran into trouble with the IAAF about the possibility of him competing in the Beijing Olympics. He's a world class South African runner who has been running and competing in various sports since high school. He ran into trouble with the IAAF because they believed that he had an unnecessary mechanical advantage over the other competitors: His prosthetic legs.
Pistorius was born without the fibula bone in both of his legs, and had his legs amputated between the knee and ankle when he was 11-months old (a fairly common procedure for fibular hemimelia). He's been competing in track events on his Cheeta Flex Foot prosthetic limbs, and that's what the IAAF was concerned about, but only after they changed a ruling to disallow "any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device". This ruling was only made after the IAAF had already invited him to compete in multiple events of theirs (most of which he didn't win).
After some pressure from experts in the US (Physicists among them) and his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, he was allowed to compete, but didn't make the team that year.
However, Imagine my surprise to hear his name listed on the South African team this year. Whether he wins or not, he's already proving a technological marvel. He's using technology not just to get some semblance of function out of damaged limbs, but to overcome his descriptor as a "disabled" man. He's already pushed the limit of our conception about what that word means and blown it out of the water. This is a man who stands as a symbol not just for disabled people everywhere, but for all people. But perhaps his own words are better suited to explain this.
"You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have."
@Dedwrekka: The disabled community will have those that rise above the tide and benefit, no only themselves, but humanity.
Consider Stephen Hawking a prime example...
@8573gs9: It's not quite the same thing. It's more like Stephen Hawking building an exoskeleton that makes him stronger than a professional weight lifter. Even then, Stephen Hawking was brilliant before being disabled. It's always exciting and cool to see how people with disabilities overcome those disabilities, but what Pistorius is doing is even more-so because his method of overcoming the disability makes him somewhat more able than even someone without a disability. What this is is not just a case of overcoming the disability, it's becoming more than you were before the disability and somehow being strengthened beyond what society would consider normal ability through that method and determination.