Oscar Pistorius

[SM#16]

Is going to make Olympic history today when he competes in the 400M, the first amputee to do so.

What are your thoughts on it? Should he be allowed? Is it a representation of modern society? Does he gain an unfair advantage (from a sporting view, no violins please).

I find it quite intriguing, not sure what the story for him at the Paralympics is, I'm assuming he was too good for it so wanted to take on the Olympics too

[nascot]

It's very difficult to tell whether he gains and advantage or not. If he's successful there will always be doubts about how legitimate he is.

[The Voice of Reason]

Is going to make Olympic history today when he competes in the 400M, the first amputee to do so.

What are your thoughts on it? Should he be allowed? Is it a representation of modern society? Does he gain an unfair advantage (from a sporting view, no violins please).

I find it quite intriguing, not sure what the story for him at the Paralympics is, I'm assuming he was too good for it so wanted to take on the Olympics too

I think he has an unfair advantage over the able bodied athletes and should not be allowed to compete against them, and I have been of that opinion since the subject was first raised.

Lets put it this way, would he be as fast if he was not disabled, I think not; his high tech legs give him an advantage over able bodied athletes without a doubt IMO!!!

[ForzaWatford]

I think the problem I have is, how can you allow him, but no other disabled athletes into the Olympics? Opens a whole can of worms.

[North North Watford]

I think the problem I have is, how can you allow him, but no other disabled athletes into the Olympics? Opens a whole can of worms.

You've got to do it on a sport-by-sport basis. I don't see a particular problem with a double amputee being allowed to design his legs to compete in a running event: if one day we need to regulate it then we can always do that. But if a double amputee were good enough to compete in judo or gymnastics, then clearly there is a massive advantage in having springy legs shaped like hooks.

Although judo allows people who are too fat to be sumo wrestlers, so I suppose anything goes.

[Hornmeister]

You can't stop disabled people competing, but you need to regulate the equipment they use. In this case whould you allow a non-disabled sprinter to wear springy leg attachments if they wanted. If the answer is no then Pistorious shouldn't be able to wear them. It's been decided that they don't offer an advantage so the situation is unlikely, but what if they did?

It's not discrimination, it's treating him fairly compared to an able bodied competitor. Would you allow a five foot person to wear stilts to play basket ball? It's not their fault that genetically they are too short to play basketball effectively.

[Vespa Crabro]

Single leg amputees race with one blade only, showing that the blades are tuned to emulate normal lower leg performance so I don't see any advantage.

[wfcmoog]

Single leg amputees race with one blade only, showing that the blades are tuned to emulate normal lower leg performance so I don't see any advantage.

Must be true, or they'd run in circles.

[Vespa Crabro]

Must be true, or they'd run in circles.

Exactly.

[UEA_Hornet]

If I recall correctly they've done endless scientific tests of his blades and can't find any advantage from them. I disagree with TVOR saying he wouldn't be as fast if he wasn't disabled - the bloke has to be a pretty elite athlete just to do what he does now so how can you say that? It's not as if he's some big fat slob of a bloke with bionic legs...