Pistorius was cleared to race by the Court of Arbitration for Sport and reached the m semi-final in London. Inventor Van Phillips believes blade runners could soon "run faster than we have seen before" as designs improve.
Pistorius was originally banned from competing against able-bodied rivals by athletics governing body the IAAF before later being cleared to run by Cas. But German long jumper Markus Rehm will miss the Rio Olympics after failing to prove his prosthetic leg did not give him an advantage.
Phillips added: "It is a matter of time before you get a genetically gifted athlete who loses his leg and with a running prosthetic, he will run faster than we have seen before.
In , as Rehm sought a way to continue competing in mainstream events, the IAAF changed its rules , requiring amputee athletes prove a prosthesis does not give them an edge. Long jumpers such as Rehm rely on a fast run-up sprint followed by an efficient takeoff technique to propel them both vertically and horizontally over a sand pit. During takeoff a jumper lowers his center of mass and pushes off of one leg to quickly get as high in the air as possible without sacrificing forward velocity.
In general, the faster the run-up speed the farther a competitor will jump. Grabowski and her colleagues found that Rehm and other world-class long jumpers with a below-the-knee amputation use a fundamentally different technique than competitors who do not need a prosthesis. In March Grabowski, Kram and research associate Paolo Taboga reported in The Journal of Experimental Biology that athletes with a left leg prosthesis are at a disadvantage in track events of meters or more.
Having their blade leg on the inside of the counter-clockwise curve made them generally 4 percent slower than those wearing right leg prostheses. The disparity was less pronounced in the outer lanes where the curve radius is not as great. Grabowski and her colleagues continue to research the effects of blade height and stiffness on performance.
The International Paralympic Committee IPC , which governs the Paralympic Games, regulates prosthetic length for double-leg amputees based on a number of factors including wingspan from the tips of one's fingers on one hand to those on the other hand while the arms are held perpendicular to the body and height. The researchers tested five amputee athletes running at different heights on blade prosthetics made by three companies. The researchers hope to publish their findings within the next six months.
Meticulous lab testing is important but it can never replicate what actually happens on the track in the heat of competition. Subscribe to our newsletters. Dezeen Daily Dezeen Weekly. Thank you! You will shortly receive a welcome email so please check your inbox.
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