FanHouse Oscar Pistorius

The man you see above is Oscar Pistorius, a South African sprinter who races on prosthetic legs like the one he's holding. Pistorius is really fast -- so fast that he nearly qualified for the 2008 Olympics, which raised questions about whether his prosthetics give him an unfair advantage. Now the New York Times ethics column has weighed in on the debate.

The Olympic dreams of double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius were put on hold after he failed to make the South African roster for the 1600 meter relay. While Pistorius will not be competing against the world's best in Beijing in August, he does plan on competing in the Paralympic Games held there in September.

Oscar admits that a long legal battle which he was fighting for the right to compete against able-bodied athletes took much of his focus away from training for the games. But failing to make the South African team for Beijing hasn't crushed Pistorius' Olympic dreams completely as he hopes to try again to make the team for the 2012 Games in London.

Pistorius is featured in the end of this Nike Courage ad that will be seen during Olympic telecasts next month.

Oscar Pistorius's hopes of going to Beijing as a member for the South African Olympic team are getting dimmer. He ran the 400 meters in 46.25 at a meet in Switzerland today, 0.70 seconds slower than the qualifying time he needed to gain entry to the event during the Games.

The South African Olympic Committee gave him until July 17th to make the qualifying time. They can still choose him as a member of the 400 meter relay team but that's his last chance at running in Beijing.

"It's up to the (South African) federation but I know there are one or two guys hoping to make the squad who have not done as good as 46.25 this year so I'll just have to see when I get home."

If Pistorius is selected, it would be over the objections of the International Association of Athletics Federations. The organization said Tuesday that they would prefer Pistorius not be picked for the team. They couched their complaint as one of safety for Pistorius and other runners but it's more likely that this all goes back to their initial ruling about Pistorius's eligibility for the Olympics. They think that he's gained some kind of mechanical advantage thanks to his prosthetics and they want to close the door to him and other runners in his position.

Double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius will be allowed to represent South Africa in the Beijing Olympics while using his Cheetah prosthetic legs, the Court of Arbitration in Sport ruled last week.

But just because he's allowed to run doesn't mean he will. In fact, as the Times of South Africa reports, he's got a very, very difficult road to qualify for the Olympics. There is almost no chance that Pistorius will run a qualifying time in the 400 meters, as Pistorius himself seems to have accepted:

"At least the door is open for the future - I can run in able-bodied meets. There will be world champs next year, the 2012 Olympics. In all honesty, it will be extremely difficult to qualify for Beijing."

If the South African 4x400-meter relay team qualifies for Beijing (probably about a 50-50 proposition), Pistorius might be chosen as an alternate on that team. So he might get to Beijing. But he probably wouldn't actually run there.

The bottom line is that the ruling allowing Pistorius to run set an important precedent for the future, but it will probably have no impact on the 2008 Summer Olympics.

This is Tanni Grey-Thompson, a Welsh woman who was born with spina bifida and has become one of the greatest wheelchair athletes in history, with 11 gold medals in the Paralympics.

Her status as a great Paralympian makes Grey-Thompson a person whose opinion is often sought on issues related to athletes with disabilities. And her opinion about Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee who will be allowed to run on his prosthetic limbs in the Olympics, might surprise some people.

Although she begins by saying she's personally happy for Pistorius that he'll be able to pursue his dreams, she also makes clear that she doesn't think what's good for Pistorius is good for other athletes, able-bodied and not:

"It worries me that the Paralympics may become a b-final. If no one else makes it through to the able-bodied event, then the Paralympics becomes something for those people who don't make it.

"I have concerns about whether his prosthetic limbs would give him an unfair advantage or possibly a disadvantage."

Pistorius is an admirable person whom everyone wants to cheer for, but that doesn't mean he's right in this case. Grey-Thompson makes some important points.

Double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, whose prosthetic legs have been decried by some as an unfair advantage, won an appeal today and will be permitted to run at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

That doesn't necessarily mean he will run, however. He would still need to run a qualifying time in his best event, the 400 meters, or be chosen by South Africa for a relay team.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled today that Pistorius is eligible to race against able-bodied athletes, overturning a ban by the IAAF, track and field's governing body, which said carbon fiber prosthetic blades are more efficient than human legs and therefore give him an unfair mechanical advantage. In a classy move, IAAF President Lamine Diack did not criticize the arbitration board's ruling and instead released a statement praising Pistorius today:

"The IAAF accepts the decision of CAS and Oscar will be welcomed wherever he competes this summer. He is an inspirational man and we look forward to admiring his achievements in the future."

The arbitration board's ruling, which was unanimous, is effective immediately.

UPDATE: Wheelchair Athlete Thinks Oscar Pistorius Should Stick With Paralympics

Previously on FanHouse:
Oscar Pistorius Takes Second in 400 Meters, Runs Behind World-Class Sprinters
'Would I Want My Legs Back? I'd Have to Sit Down and Think About It'
400 Meters: Oscar Pistorius Can't Keep Up, Jeremy Wariner Stumbles and Stops

Ruling that his high-tech prosthetic legs give him an unfair advantage, the world governing body for track and field said today that double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius cannot compete at the 2008 Olympics.

Pistorius, a South African who uses prosthetics known as Cheetahs, expected the ruling and has already said he plans to appeal.

But any appeal might come too late. South Africa's track and field federation said that it will apply the ruling immediately and ban Pistorius from competing against able-bodied athletes. That means that even if he wins his appeal, it may be too late for him to qualify for the Olympics.

Pistorius isn't fast enough to medal at the Olympics, but he might be fast enough to make South Africa's team, if he were allowed. He ran the 400 meters in 46.90 seconds at the Golden League meet in Rome on July 13, competing in a sanctioned race against able-bodied runners.

A time of 46.90 seconds wouldn't have been good enough to advance beyond the preliminary heats at the 2004 Olympics, but it wouldn't have finished last in any of the preliminary heats, either.

Ultimately, the track and field governing body faced two questions: First, are there any advantages to having prosthetic legs? And if so, do those advantages make the use of prosthetics unfair to competitors without them? The people who run track and field believe the answer to both questions is yes.

Does Oscar Pistorius have an unfair advantage because he runs on specially designed prosthetic legs? We won't need to worry about that question until Pistorius can compete for a spot in the Olympic Games, and Pistorius showed today that he can't do that.

Pistorius ran the 400 meters in 47.65 seconds, well behind Angelo Taylor's winning time of 45.25 at the British Grand Prix meet. His time actually doesn't go into the record books, though, because judges ruled he ran out of his lane. Pistorius finished ahead of only one runner, American Jeremy Wariner, who stumbled out of the blocks and quit the race after taking just a few steps.

After the race Pistorius complained that track and field officials have made derogatory comments about him and other Paralympians, including one who said allowing Pistorius to race could pave the way for athletes to compete wearing jet-packs on their backs.

Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee track star, is just hours away from the biggest race of his career at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix, and the Sunday Times of London has a great profile that shows how Pistorius went from a baby born without fibulas to a man who can run with the best athletes in the world.

Twice a week, Pistorius recalls, he had to persuade a group of boys from another school that he was quite normal and, as it happens, pretty talented. By the time they had worked it out, rationalised their own feelings, Pistorius's high school team had made off with the spoils. "It's natural that people feel sorry for you," he says. "But it got to the point where I realised I could do most things better than most able-bodied people. If you ask me today if I'd want to have my legs back, I'd have to sit down seriously and think about it. Being an amputee, growing up with my disability has made me the person I am."

Pistorius isn't good enough, yet, to win an Olympic medal, but there's a chance he will be some day. If that day comes, a controversy will rage about whether his prosthetic legs give him an unfair advantage. Let's hope that controversy doesn't obscure his story.

Previously on FanHouse:
The Debriefing: Olympic Sprinters Should Cut Off Their Legs
Oscar Pistorius To Race That Fast White Guy from the Olympics
Amputee Officially Banned From Olympics
Should Olympics Ban Runners With Prosthetic Legs?

Double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius, whose prosthetic legs give him, in the eyes of some, an unfair advantage, took second place in the "B race" in the 400 meters at the IAAF Golden Gala in Rome's Olympic Stadium yesterday.

His time of 46.90 seconds still falls well short of what he'll need when he runs today against tougher competition, including the best 400-meter runner in the world, American Jeremy Warner, but the mere fact that he's competing has caused a great deal of scrutiny. Scientists from the Italian Olympic Committee's sports science institute in Rome fixed cameras on Pistorius, and the pictures will be used to determine whether the carbon-fibre blades on which he runs should be permitted in the future.

Previously on FanHouse:
The Debriefing: Olympic Sprinters Should Cut Off Their Legs
Oscar Pistorius To Race That Fast White Guy from the Olympics
Amputee Officially Banned From Olympics
Should Olympics Ban Runners With Prosthetic Legs?