From Neil Wilson, the Daily Mail
Is the fastest man on no legs one of the world’s great sprinters? Or is he merely an engineering marvel who should be kept out of the Olympics?
Oscar Pistorius has no legs below his knees. Something of a disadvantage for a runner, you might think. Disabling, even.
But running on carbon-fibre blades like curled stilts that earn him the nickname Blade Runner, Pistorius beat all but one of the able-bodied runners in his native South Africa to win the silver medal at its national championships.
His fastest time of 45.34sec for 400m would have won a medal at every Olympics before 1960 which has the world body who govern athletics wondering whether the two-legged variety common to their competitions might need protection from a double amputee.
The IAAF will not confirm their intentions but they are expected to propose banning the blades when their rule-making congress meet in August, in time to stop Pistorius embarrassing men with a natural quota of limbs at next year’s Olympics.
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