The Blade Runner's Personal Victory
The biggest winner at the World Championships of track and field now underway in Korea may be a guy who didn't even reach the final of his event. And the issues raised by his success — and, just as important, the more quotidian victories of millions of others — are sparking some interesting discussions.
Oscar Pistorius was born in South Africa in 1986 missing the fibula in both legs, which were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. He uses prosthetic legs and was such a "tearaway" that he'd jump into swimming pools (bad idea with the prosthetics on), climb trees, ride bikes — and run. Fast.
Eventually he got specially made carbon "blades" — he's frequently called "Blade Runner" — just for racing. Using them feels a bit like standing on the balls of your feet: You can't do it for very long. They attach to his lower legs, and curve forward. Technically, the blades may give him an advantage on the straightaway but a disadvantage at the start and on the bends, which is particularly significant since his chosen distance, the 400m, is half bends and half straightaway.
Pistorius won Paralympic medals in 2004, and three golds in 2008 (in the 100, 200 and 400) but set his sights on the open competition. Whether he should be allowed to compete at the highest level became an issue when he tried out for the Olympics in 2008. Eventually it was ruled that he could, but he failed to meet the qualifying time standard. This year he succeeded: He ran 400m in 45.07 seconds, safely under the men's qualifying time of 45.25, and booked his place for Daegu, where he would run against the world's best.
He did well. He came third in his heat, in 45.39, which was good enough to qualify for the semifinals. Indeed, had he matched that time in his second race, he would have reached the final as one of the two "fastest losers." Sadly for him, he faded to 46.19; to put that in context, even that would have been the men's world record in 1936 and it's still faster than any woman has yet run the distance. And Pistorius said ahead of time that he would be "over the moon" just to reach the semifinal.
His competitors seem to have accepted him, and the public seems to be hugely appreciative, but some people do still have questions. Former Olympic silver medalist Roger Black points out that "we don't know if Oscar is an amazing athlete, or a very good athlete with an advantage," though world record holder Michael Johnson is "100% in support of Oscar." But the great Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson thinks that:
"If Oscar makes the Olympics then his event shouldn't be run at the Paralympics because the Paralympics should never be a 'B' final."
The rules of sport often seem somewhat arbitrary, at first sight, on matters of assisting performance. Altitude training is legal, for example, as is sleeping in a tent with artificially reduced oxygen; but boosting the oxygen-carrying capacity of your blood with EPO is emphatically banned by the strict WADA code. (Even that, incidentally, does allow some medical exemptions). Laser surgery to improve vision is allowed, but penis enlargement is not (at least not if the product also includes dehydroepiandrosterone). And of course cyclists use the latest and lightest machines, swimmers use high-tech suits, runners have far better shoes and tracks than in generations past, and so on.
But lines do have to be drawn, and overall WADA, and the track authorities, do a sensible job of making the distinctions. Indeed, Pistorius was told that if he wanted to compete in the 4 x 400m relay, he could only do so as the lead-off runner, since the chances of a collision and injury were too great in the later legs, which are not run in lanes. (He did, and his team qualified for the final.) He also is not allowed to upgrade his equipment without petitioning for a status change.
Pistorius is now famous, and has endorsement contracts with Nike and Pirelli. He probably could not be a full-time professional athlete without that income. Does that give him an advantage over an Ethiopian kid? Maybe so. He's a good-looking white guy, does that help? Probably. His lack of feet, and his technological replacement for them, is only one part of who he is.
The commercials seem to focus on his determination and courage, which are indubitable, but that approach might rankle those who see in them an implication that people with disabilities can and should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Others may be concerned that his case will be used to promote transhumanist ideas; Gregor Wolbring investigated this in some detail a few years ago. Some are even suggesting that his appearance in Korea may "mark the point when the barriers that exist in the public imagination between what it means to be 'able' and 'disabled', Olympian and Paralympian, begin to be broken down for good."
All these are interesting topics for discussion, but it's also worth holding on to the simple essence. Most of all, Pistorius is a runner. Next year, he hopes to run in the Olympics. He just needs one more fast time.
Previously on Biopolitical Times:
