Should the Olympics allow a double amputee to compete with prosthetics?

[Sapo]

@Sapo

capybaras ate my post. There was an article on Wired about this. Might repost with details later if nobody has. Summary: he has less muscle mass to do the work of running.

better late than never, I guess:

Blade Runner

a very good read for all those who have had some interest in this thread. It addresses all the topics mentioned so far, and then some. Running tall, speed of improvement, muscle mass available, etc.

[sinjin]

Also, if you’re going to allow people with double prosthetics, why not wheelchairs? Your marathon takes a lot less time to watch (something on the order of 45 minutes, last time I checked). Over 800m (about half a mile for you standard units folks) the wheelchair record is something like 9 seconds faster than the running record.

[monavis]

@sinjin

Also, if you’re going to allow people with double prosthetics, why not wheelchairs? Your marathon takes a lot less time to watch (something on the order of 45 minutes, last time I checked). Over 800m (about half a mile for you standard units folks) the wheelchair record is something like 9 seconds faster than the running record.

If you are in a wheel chair you are not running, itwould be no different than using a golf cart.

Monavis

[Nava]

@Ravenman

This isn’t a question of technique, like some people complained about the Fosbury flop in high jumping when it was invented – that’s using the same muscles that everyone else has in a different way to achieve better results, just like how American football kickers changed their style to one more common to soccer during the 1970s and 80s. In such cases, it is conceivable that an athlete can retrain to use a new technique to jump high, kick a football, or swing a golf club.

Pst, Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo, javelin throw. His world record got invalidated post-facto… the judges didn’t like his style.

All I find about it is in Spanish, that’s why I’m not posting a link.