Prosthetics do not give sprinters unfair advantage
NOV 06, 2009
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.023820
guardian.co.uk : Prosthetics worn by disabled sprinters confer no speed advantage, scientists have found. If anything, they may reduce the top speed a runner can achieve.The research supports the case made by the South African Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius , who uses flexible carbon-fiber blades in races.Pistorius has long argued that he should be allowed to compete alongside able-bodied athletes in races, but athletics authorities banned him from doing so in last year’s Olympic games, claiming that his blades gave him an unfair advantage over able-bodied athletes.But the new study by Alena Grabowski at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests the authorities may have come to the wrong conclusion. Related Link Running-specific prostheses limit ground-force during sprinting Biology Letters
© 2009 American Institute of Physics
