September 3, 2012

expert reaction to Bladegate – Pistorius claims Oliveira’s artificial legs give him an unfair advantage

Oscar Pistorius, the South African paralympian, claimed foul play when beaten by fellow athlete Alan Fonteles Oliveira claiming Oliveira’s prosthetic legs gave him a winning advantage.

Prof Steve Haake, Head of Sports Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, said:

“Unfortunately, Pistorius has invalidated his reasons for being able to run in the Olympics as well as the Paralympics. To run in the Olympics, his team claimed that he had no advantage over non-amputees. Pistorius is now saying that you just need to lengthen your prosthetics to go faster, something non-amputees cannot do (unless someone creates high-heeled running shoes). This points towards amputees such as Pistorius in the Olympic 400m as an invalid test of performance.”

Prof Andy Miah, Director of the Creative Futures Institute at the University of the West of Scotland, said:

“It would be a mistake to say that Oscar has been beaten at his own game, but critics have drawn parallels between his concern about Alan Fonteles Oliveira and arguments against Oscar’s participation within the Olympic Games.

“The IPC have said that Oliveira’s legs are within the rules, but here we have another debate about what the rules should be in the first place. Oscar’s concern indicates that these athletes have changed their legs recently in such a way as to betray the rules, but only an inquiry will change this decision now. It sounds to me that there ought to be one, since it is highly unusual that an athlete should gain such great speed in the final stretch and that they could so dramatically change their running times from one Games to the next.

“It’s hard to understand how a Paralympian could adjust their prosthetics in such a way as to dramatically alter their height, but the concern seems to be that the Paralympic rules are not tight enough.

“If the rules are all agreed, then last night was a great night for Paralympic sport. It needs more people who can compete with Oscar Pistorius to really bring about a change in the argument over whether there should be just one Games. With more athletes reaching the same level of Pistorius, I think we are closer to that point.

“This situation may be a reason to force Paralympians to use the same kind of technology, while of course adjusting to their individual body types.

“The big question emerging from the T44 200m final is whether the Paralympic rules need to be tighter. It’s normal that a past winner should face young challengers and that they should eventually dethrone the champion. However, this looks like an unusual win and the concerns have been raised by other Paralympians about athletes adjusting their blade dimensions.

“If Oliveira’s prosthetic legs are bigger and better and legal, then Pistorius really ought to get some. If his body height precludes this and the only reason why Alan Fonteles Oliveira has longer blades is that he is taller, then Pistorius has been beaten by a more biologically privileged athlete. However, there might be an argument to divide athletes by height as well as disability – and this is something I’ve argued should be applied not just to Paralympic sport, but also the Olympics. In the same way that we separate athletes in weight divisions, height also has a huge impact on likely achievements.”