Reading a para-athlete’s claim that with new technology coming through he will beat Bolt’s 100m record in the next 3 years it reminded me that Oscar Pistorius was allowed entry to the 2012 games to run against able bodied athletes. At the time I confess the ability to come to a conclusion there was no unfair advantage seemed a bit flakey but surely now we will never see it happen again.

Very mixed feelings about para-athletics. I’ve been involved myself as a guide to a blind para-triathlete (european champions no less) and the range of abilities/disabilities within a category can make a bit of a mockery of the result at times. Brilliant that it exists and is so much more high profile than it once was, and at times humbling and inspiring but if taken full on seriously there’s still a lot of inequity in the outcome that you have to get your head around as a competitor.

Won’t be long until people elect to be enhanced.

Won’t be long until people elect to be enhanced.

Or the other way. I witnessed one lad only half jokingly say that if he was only a bit less mobile in his right arm he would have shifted down a category and be cleaning up all the medals rather than an also ran in a category where he was one of the most disadvantaged.

5thelefant +1
Wonder how it will affect athletics as para athletes start firstly to compete with and then to defeat “able bodied” athletes. [video]https://youtu.be/GDpmVUEjagg[/video]

I don’t really care…i can’t help but find para sport boring simply due to the tiny levels of global competition each athlete must face compared to regular sport.

Would love to see more para athletes competing in the mainstream. I geuss with enhanced athletes they can detune the tech if it gets silly. Although that might get a bit Top Gear racing with the faster one hobbled to make it interesting.

What about able bodied athletes competing in wheelchair events? Would they have an advantage?

I geuss with enhanced athletes they can detune the tech if it gets silly. Although that might get a bit Top Gear racing with the faster one hobbled to make it interesting.

They kind of do that already don’t they – this came up when Pistorius competed at both the able bodied and para games in 2012 – the rules on the length of blade (or some parameter) he could use in the Olympics was shorter than was permitted in the paralympics – but reasonably enough he could only train / run in one configuration, and then he was bitching when he was beaten in the paralympics that it was unfair because the guy who beat him was on longer blades…

What about able bodied athletes competing in wheelchair events? Would they have an advantage?

Maybe in a skill sport like wheelchair basketball but in something like athletics I expect having to live your life in a wheelchair amounts to an awful lot of supplemental training that would be difficult to match for an able bodied sports person.

Didn’t the Harlem Globetrotters do that and get their arses handed to them?

glasgowdan – Member
I don’t really care…i can’t help but find para sport boring simply due to the tiny levels of global competition each athlete must face compared to regular sport.

I’ve been watching quite a lot of it, and in most events there are enough different global competitors to make them do heats to whittle down the numbers for a final medal-winning race.
Rather like regular able-bodied athletes, in fact.

Having worked on the design of lower-limb prosthetics many years ago the big problem is the ‘loss’ of power from the calf muscles, particularly for the start – so they’re having to make-up time. If speed is simply a function of power, can’t see how the physics adds up without some form of ‘auxiliary’ power?

I reckon blades are a lot lighter than a real leg, which would give you an advantage once up to speed. Probably also better for energy recovery once you are up to speed. But as you say, worse for starts and probably much worse in corners, at a guess.

The reason I think it shouldn’t be allowed is that it’s a different sport, really. We have different classes of motorsport with different equippment – why not in athletics? In the same way that you don’t race, I dunno, Formula Ford with Touring cars, even if they were similar speed.

Although a separate class of mixed racing – that would be great to watch. Wheelchair vs able bodied. Or how about a ‘modified’ class of para athletes, with unlimited prosthetic tech allowed. Like telescopic legs, with a high pressure charge to fire you out of the blocks then they extend really long so you can bound along dead fast.

Yup, couple of compressed air cylinders on the back of the blades should even things up nicely for the starts, useful for the jumping events too. Used to work with a double, below-knee amputee who did para-athletic events – his jumping legs were a foot-longer than his sprinting ones.

A foot-longer?
Thought you said he was an amputee?

I’ve been watching quite a lot of it, and in most events there are enough different global competitors to make them do heats to whittle down the numbers for a final medal-winning race.
Rather like regular able-bodied athletes, in fact.
POSTED

Yep, and look at the variation in ability in those heats.

How many good male T11 middle distance runners do you think there are in the world vs healthy senior men? 1%? Probably much less.

couple of compressed air cylinders on the back of the blades

But they only have a short capacity, so you have to time your boost for the right moment… 🙂

What about able bodied athletes competing in wheelchair events? Would they have an advantage?

I said something similar at home the other day, are the wheelchairs weight equalised? OK there’s advantages to having some lower limb mobility in giving stability in the chair, IIRC the teams have to have a proportion of players with no waist movement, proportion with brain/neurological injuries/disease etc.

But what about wheelchair sprinting, is having a leg not just carrying a ~10kg disadvantage?

I don’t really care…i can’t help but find para sport boring simply due to the tiny levels of global competition each athlete must face compared to regular sport.

&

the range of abilities/disabilities within a category can make a bit of a mockery of the result at times.

No different to the able bodied athlete then really, even with all the training in the world I’m never going to do 100m <15seconds, my legs aren’t long enough and I’m just not built for that many steps per min. Equally Mo was never likely to pursue a career in Rugby Union as a Prop.

Sport is rarely fair like that. But I still wouldn’t want to see the (able bodied) 100m won by someone on blades or a wheelchair.