I just watched him run/exchange the name tag and it was awesome but put me in the no group. Tech always improves and and some point you won't be able to deny the advantage, then where do you draw the line.

So he should be excluded because someday, someone might come up with something that gives them an unfair advantage? That's like banning cellphones because someone might someday make one with a deadly laser.

...but this is like bringing a motorcycle to a horse race.

His prostheses doesn't give him an advantage over other runners.

Your article doesn't explain both sides of these findings. They were published in a "point/counterpoint" feature in the Journal of Applied Physiology and the SI writer did a good job of interviewing and quoting the lead author of the "Point" section. He didn't do so well with the "Counterpoint" authors. There are serious arguments to be made about the contention that a combination of low ground reaction force and fast leg swing times account constitute actual advantage for Pistorius. In fact, Weyland's contention that Pistorius' low ground reaction force readings constitute an advantage is puzzling considering that the application of downward force into the ground is precisely what allows a runner to accelerate and maintain speed in the first place.

 

Just because it uses scientific terms and sounds great doesn't make it great science, and I'm left a little underwhelmed by the studies that led to these conclusions. I'd like to see more data involving numerous amputees' ground reaction forces and leg swing times, rather than just measuring Oscar Pistorius and comparing him to the averages of other sprinters. We don't have NEARLY enough data to make a good scientific conclusion here, and until we do, I'm going to err on the side of inclusiveness.

Thanks for debunking that for us Getslow. I swear, it gets to be like watching MSNBC around here sometimes.

Are his competitors complaining? I ask because I don't have time to read the whole thing right now.

 

They can't complain. It's not the politically correct thing to do. Must protect that image.

So he should be excluded because someday, someone might come up with something that gives them an unfair advantage? That's like banning cellphones because someone might someday make one with a deadly laser.

 

Absolutely. You don't think someone is working on his new and improved legs for 2016 at this very moment?

His prostheses doesn't give him an advantage over other runners.

 

Not this one. What about his new set?

 

Kind of reminds me of the original Ironman suit that was built in a cave. It was primitive yet still advanced. Once Tony Starks was able to get back to the lab and make some tweaks to the suit it became a much better suit. By the time Ironman 2 rolled around.....see what I am saying? In 2016 if Blade Runner runs and is faster will it be because he trained even harder than he already is or did he just upgrade his legs like a cellphone? He's running on iPhone 3s right now. What happens when he upgrades to iPhone 8s?

Not this one. What about his new set?

 

Kind of reminds me of the original Ironman suit that was built in a cave. It was primitive yet still advanced. Once Tony Starks was able to get back to the lab and make some tweaks to the suit it became a much better suit. By the time Ironman 2 rolled around.....see what I am saying? In 2016 if Blade Runner runs and is faster will it be because he trained even harder than he already is or did he just upgrade his legs like a cellphone? He's running on iPhone 3s right now. What happens when he upgrades to iPhone 8s?

 

Sports across the board have all sorts of regulation on equipment. This will be no different. Any advances in technology will have to be examined under the same strict scrutiny as these have been to determine if an advantage exists.

Flex-Foot Cheetahs have been used by Paralympic athletes since 1996 and have been scientifically proven to not give a net advantage over able-bodied athletes.

 

Link, please.

 

Two scientific teams presented their findings to the CAS. One team of scientists, led by Peter Brüggemann had been hired by the IAAF. The findings of an American team of scientists were presented by Hugh Herr and Rodger Kram. Three judges presided: one from the IAAF, one chosen by Oscar Pistorius’ team and one who was neutral. It was a unanimous decision by all three judges to overturn the IAAF ban on Oscar Pistorius competing in events under their jurisdiction.

 

If we're going to cite studies shouldn't we cite all info about it?

 

 

The CAS ruling explicitly noted that though the prostheses give no energetic advantage relevant to sprinting, future scientific findings could still show that the Cheetah Flex-Feet give Pistorius a mechanical advantage. Eighteen months later, Weyand and Matthew Bundle, a biomechanist at Montana and one of the other scientists who did the testing that got Pistorius reinstated, came out and said that the Cheetahs do just that.

*****

"It was dead obvious as soon as [bundle and I] saw the data that Oscar has an advantage," says Peter Weyand, who now directs the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory. "We haven't wavered from that interpretation since."

 

 

Read more: Does Oscar Pistorius have an unfair advantage? Answer unclear - David Epstein - SI.com

 

...and this

 

Because the CAS hearing examined specifically -- and only -- the IAAF's previous claims regarding Pistorius, it was not until the following year, when the scientific team published its full findings in the Journal of Applied Physiology, that the researchers who helped Pistorius earn the right to compete split into groups, with Weyand and Bundle contending that Pistorius has a massive advantage.

 

Read more: Does Oscar Pistorius have an unfair advantage? Answer unclear - David Epstein - SI.com

 

It has been claimed because the Flex-Foot Cheetahs are lighter than a human foot and calf, they facilitate an unnaturally shorter swing time which enables more strides to be taken. Some studies have compared video footage from the 100m Olympic finals in Beijing, showing bronze medallist Walter Dix ran with a leg swing-time of 0.274 seconds, faster than 0.297s generated by Pistorius in his 100m race win.

 

Both in scientific papers and in the press, Herr and colleagues who side with him have argued that Pistorius's leg-swing time is not truly off the biological charts. "Regarding swing times," Herr says, "one would get really suspicious that there is augmentation if ... no one with a biological body has ever achieved that metric. But it's not the case." Herr and colleagues -- and Pistorius's Web site -- have claimed that Walter Dix posted a 0.274 of a second swing time when he took bronze in the 100 in Beijing. But video footage used for that measurement was from NBC's television broadcast, with a frame rate far too slow for scientific research. When Dix was filmed with research-grade cameras at the 2007 and '08 U.S. championships, his leg-swing time in both instances was 0.32, consistent with that of other able-bodied sprinters.

 

Read more: Does Oscar Pistorius have an unfair advantage? Answer unclear - David Epstein - SI.com

 

 

But Pistorius's leg-swing times, when measured on a high-speed treadmill, were off the human charts. At top speed, he swings his legs between strides in 0.284 of a second, which is 20 percent faster than intact-limbed sprinters with the same top speed. "His limbs are 20 percent lighter," Weyand says, "and he swings them 20 percent faster."

 

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/david_epstein/08/03/oscar-pistorius-london-olympics/index.html#ixzz22o0TTvm9

Not this one. What about his new set?

 

Kind of reminds me of the original Ironman suit that was built in a cave. It was primitive yet still advanced. Once Tony Starks was able to get back to the lab and make some tweaks to the suit it became a much better suit. By the time Ironman 2 rolled around.....see what I am saying? In 2016 if Blade Runner runs and is faster will it be because he trained even harder than he already is or did he just upgrade his legs like a cellphone? He's running on iPhone 3s right now. What happens when he upgrades to iPhone 8s?

If they give him an unfair advantage, I can't see the Olympic committee allowing them. I see it as something that will always be up for review.

I'm in no hurry, Birdsfan. Digest all of that and tell me again how the report I posted is "denial."

Somebody may have already said this, but I struggle to call it an advantage because he doesn't have some of the body parts that help you run. How hard do you think it would be to run without your tendons, calf muscles, feet for balance and feel, etc.? Seems to me that only having half the muscles an able body man has would be a disadvantage.

Not this one. What about his new set?

 

Kind of reminds me of the original Ironman suit that was built in a cave. It was primitive yet still advanced. Once Tony Starks was able to get back to the lab and make some tweaks to the suit it became a much better suit. By the time Ironman 2 rolled around.....see what I am saying? In 2016 if Blade Runner runs and is faster will it be because he trained even harder than he already is or did he just upgrade his legs like a cellphone? He's running on iPhone 3s right now. What happens when he upgrades to iPhone 8s?

 

Now we are comparing this to Iron Man.

Sports across the board have all sorts of regulation on equipment. This will be no different. Any advances in technology will have to be examined under the same strict scrutiny as these have been to determine if an advantage exists.

 

If they give him an unfair advantage, I can't see the Olympic committee allowing them. I see it as something that will always be up for review.

 

This is where it gets slippery for me. He'll need some new ones next time he competes. If someone makes him some better ones I think it will be hard to not allow him to use whatever he has. Other runners will have new shoes, different spikes, etc. Is he going to have to submit his legs every Olympics for inspection? Before and after every race to make sure he doesn't slip on the good ones?

 

I'd still love to see what people would people would say if he had set a record or won gold. He lost in the semis so it's a feel good inspirational story. What of he had won easily? What then?