Human Interest Saturdays: Oscar Pistorius

Posted May 17, 2008 at 02:54 PM by Michael J. Sedor

Section: Beijing 2008, 2008 Paralympics, Culture/History, Human Interest, Socio-Political, Events, Track & Field, Featured Writers, Michael Sedor

The big news this week for Human Interest Saturdays is of course the startling decision by Court of Arbitration for Sport to allow double amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius the chance to qualify and compete in the Olympic Games. No one expected the judicial board to allow him to compete given January’s International Association of Athletics Federations ban that said his prosthetic limbs afforded him a competitive advantage and the CAS’ stingy reputation. But they have and now the “Blade Runner” must lower his 400m time and meet the qualifying standard.

I think it is terrific that Oscar will now have the same chance to compete in the Olympic Games as any other human being. I’m not saying that the IAAF ban was preposterous but it certainly strikes me as an exclusionary and arbitrary judgment. The Olympic dream and the Olympic movement is about chance and opportunity and I think it is important that Oscar be afforded the same chance and opportunity as the rest of us “able-bodied” humans enjoy.

The pretense that he could have some sort of advantage from his ossur-built prothetics is technologically unproven at best and a fearfully paranoid hateful statement at worst. A paranoia based on a Dick Pound-solidified distrust of all things fast and competitive. Instead of applauding fast runners we assume they enjoy some sort of unhealthy or exterior advantage and wish their demise. 

Pistorius and his cheetah legs should not be seen as advantageous or even different than human limbs. They are his legs, nothing more nothing less. It is our sincere hope that he can join his fellow South African Paralympian Natalie Du Toit in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. 

For further reading on Mr. Pistorius this excellent Wired Magazine profile shows him to be a normal athlete and 21-year old, one not encumbered by stereotypes and condescending assumptions. This New York Times profile gives a good back story and provides a fair even-handed presentation of the situation. This New York Times summary of the CAS decision quotes both Parlympians and “able-bodied” sprinters on the ruling.

For more news on the inspiring Natalie Du Toit click here for words on her numerous triumphs at the Paralympic World Cup, click here for a South African Times interview, and here for a BBC Sport interview and profile.