The fastest thing on no legs
Oscar Pistorius is on track to become the first disabled runner to qualify to run at the next able-bodied Olympics. He’s currently 2 seconds off the qualifying time, but he’s already improved his personal best by 4 seconds in the last two years, so it’s very possible.
A birth defect left him missing his shin bones, so the two options open to his parents were a lifetime in a wheelchair or amputation. He used to play water polo (where no legs isn’t a huge handicap) and rugby (???) at school, but a knee injury pushed him into athletics in 2004. The following year he was running the 400m in the South African able-bodied championships. Tom Hanks is looking to make a movie about his life.
His purpose built legs, designed by a Finnish company called Ossur not only enable him to run as fast as single leg amputees, but even reach the speed of professionals with both legs. The fun will start when the IOC need to decide if his legs are the amputee equivalent of running shoes or are they “performance enhancing”?
By gary | 13. Mar 2007 | Miscellaneous | No Comments »