by John Gugie

Created on: March 24, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Should disabled athletes with prostethic limbs be allowed to compete in sports with able-bodied athletes? I think so.

21-year-old Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee sprinter from South Africa, is barred from the Olympics.

The track and field's governing body ruled that he is ineligible to compete this summer in the Beijing Olympics or any other sanctioned able-bodied competitions. Why? Because his racing blades, the prosthetic legs he uses, are aids that give him an unfair advantage over able-bodied competitors.

The International Association of Athletics Federations said that "An athlete using this prosthetic blade has a demonstrable mechanical advantage (more than 30 percent) when compared to someone not using the blade."

The Federations based its decision on a study by a German professor, Gert-Peter Brueggemann, who reported that the Cheetah blades used by Pistorius give an unfair advantage to athletes.

After two days of testing with Pistorius, the professor found that he was able to run at the same speed as able-bodied runners with a quarter less energy.

Pistorius is not looking to use his disability to his advantage. He even refuses to park in handicapped parking spaces.

Pistorius will appeal the decision.

In 2007, Pistorius finished second in the 400 meters at the South African national championships against able-bodied runners. He was allowed to compete until now because his prostheses had not been properly studied yet.

The manufacturer of the Cheetah blades and the International Paralympic Committee both agree that more tests needs to be done.

At the Paralympic events, Pistorius holds the world record for the 100, 200, and 400 meter events. The ruling doesn't affect his participation in the Paralympics.

Pistorius was born without the outer bone between the knee and ankle, which caused his legs to be amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. He began running competitively four years ago. Nine months later, he won the 200 meter event at the 2004 Paralympic Games.

What do you think about this decision? Imagine yourself trying to run on these a prosthetic legs, which end in a long, flat, curved strip of metal, like a shoehorn.

Being disabled myself, I'm used to trying to compete against able-bodied people in online games, in trivia games, and even on AC, where the first people (who can type 50-100 words per minute) to write news get published while us slow typers always miss out. It's so frustrating to be slower than able-bodied people.

Many disabled people have a great disadvantage and yet able-bodied people still need to chat to win! Take baseball for example. All of those players, who used steroids to boost their performance, created an unfair advantage.

Unlike able-bodied baseball players that use performance-enhancing drugs, Pistorius needs prostheses just to stand up and walk. To be fair, the numbers need to be weighed. The disability is a negative number and the prostheses are a positive. Find those two numbers and see how much it differs from the norm. I think it almost balances out, if not makes it a disadvantage, compared to able-bodied athletes.

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