The Fastest Man on No Legs

Oscar Pistorius was born without the bones in his lower legs and with other serious defects in his feet. At 11 months old, he had both legs amputated below the knee. Now he is training with the dream of competing in the Beijing Olympics -- in track and field.

According to an article in Tuesday's New York Times, Pistorius, a native of South Africa, recently won gold medals at 100m and 200m at the Paralympic World Cup, and has run 46.34 for 400m, a time that is good enough to make him a candidate to run for his country's 4x400m relay team at Beijing.

But the IAAF, the governing body of international track and field, is faced with the dilemma of trying to determine whether the prosthetics that Pistorius wears attached to his legs constitute an unfair advantage over "able-bodied" sprinters.

My first reaction when I started reading the story was to believe that it would be a mistake to allow such devices, but the more I read, the more i began to question my first reaction. I don't know enough about the science of prosthetics to know whether there might be a technology race to develop better and better (i.e., more efficient) devices for amputees. But I am convinced that Pistorius is a tremendous athlete who works every bit as hard for his success as any other champion. Should he be allowed to compete with prosthetics against runners with normal leg bones and feet? Where is the line that separates normal from abnormal, and when should that line be used to exclude an athlete from competition?

Our first reaction is to assume that the prosthetic constitutes an unfair advantage, but how can one weigh that advantage against the many disadvantages of running without feet and without the muscles of the lower leg. These range from the obvious -- slow starts as Pistorius shifts from a crouch to an upright position -- to the less obvious -- keeping the blades of the prosthetic from twisting in windy conditions. It's easy to think that success is the result of some inherent advantage. How often do we assume that someone who stands above his or her competitors has some inherent advantage. For example, we assume the Kenyans are great distance runners because, well, because they are Kenyans. It is sometimes hard to accept that excellence is the result of work and character.

But what if the best athlete for the job -- the one who works hardest, who perseveres through the ups and downs of training, who rises to the competitive occasion -- just happens to have no lower legs? What then?

Watch a video of Pistorius winning the 200m at the Paralympic World Cup and decide for yourself.