IOC must watch out for flying amputees

PARALYMPICS: When the regally named South African teenager Oscar Pistorius ran the 200 metres this week leaving Americans Marian Shirley and Brian Frasure in his wake, he rekindled one of the most interesting issues in Paralympic sport: the point at which the "bionic" runner may overtake the "able-bodied" runner.

Born with a congenital problem that left him without shinbones, Pistorius underwent a Symes amputation when he was an infant, the removal of both legs below the knee.

In the final he ran against athletes with various degrees of amputation but of the eight he was the only one with a double amputation.

His time of 21.97 seconds shattered the previous world record, 22.71, held by Frasure, and took him a step nearer what many have been waiting for: the moment a Paralympian runs either of the blue riband Olympic events, the 100m or 200m, faster than those running three weeks previously on the same track in the Olympic Games.

That breakthrough may not be far off, and young Pistorius looks to be the athlete most likely to succeed.

Only 17 years old, Pistorius was spotted playing rugby in Sandton, South Africa, and encouraged to concentrate on what was his most obvious natural gift: pace. He has used it well and as champion in Athens is now looking towards the Beijing Paralympics in four years' time. There he is targeting a time under 11 seconds for the 100m and under 21 seconds for the 200m.

Tim Montgomerie's questionable 9.78-second mark for the able-bodied 100m and Michael Johnson's 19.32 seconds for the 200m are still some way out of reach for the best Paralympic sprinters.

Irish records in those same events are not. Paul Brizzel's 10.35 seconds for the 100m and 20.54 seconds for the 200m are already within the sights of Frasure, Shirley and the South African.

"I think getting under 11 seconds and beating 21 seconds are reachable goals for me to set for myself in Beijing," says Pistorius. "I train with able-bodied athletes at my club, Tuks, in South Africa. I've about 12 in my training group. I believe you've got to mix with better guys in order to improve."

The increasingly professional approach of Paralympians towards training and the consistent improvement of technology are instrumental in the relentless improvement in times and distances.

In the wheelchair events that improvement has already happened dramatically. Sports-specific machines have evolved from steel to aluminium to titanium. The evolution of four-wheeled racing chairs into sleek three-wheeled aerodynamic machines with graphite wheels has already created a reverse paradigm where the Paralympian has far outpaced the world's best runners over longer distances.

Heinz Frei of Switzerland holds the world's best for the marathon: a time of one hour, 20 minutes and 14 seconds, set in Oita, Japan, in 1999. Paul Tergat's world record of 2:04:55, set last year, is over 44 minutes slower.

"I think in about 12 years we will get close to the able-bodied times in the 100m and 200m distances," says Pistorius. "In that time the technology will improve even more and the guys will be training much harder.

"Guys are becoming very professional in the way they train now and that's also very important. You won't get anywhere unless you are professional about it."

The prosthetics used by the sprinters are at the cutting edge of carbon-fibre technology. Shirley has used over 30 types of synthetic foot, all of them different shapes, different sizes, and different tensions.

Having seen Pistorius run in the 200m heats this week, the panicked American gambled and used his 100m prosthetic foot, a design that offers stiffer tension and more explosive power over the shorter distance. It didn't work as Pistorius blew the field away and Shirley was left with sore upper-leg muscles because of the effort needed to drive the less flexible foot twice the distance. The athletes use different flexibilities for different events.

"Otto Boch and Ossur are the main makers," say Pistorius. "They don't take that long to get used to. A week, or two weeks maybe. With training it's pretty quick. The main things are alignment and balance. If that's not good, you struggle a lot. The socket is also important. If they're uncomfortable you're not going to run fast."

The issue of when amputees' times begin to overtake those of able-bodied runners is an interesting one for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and doubtless they will have to legislate for it before it falls on their lap. What will happen when a Paralympian amputee who can break 10 seconds for 100 metres decides to enter his national championships against able-bodied runners in order to qualify for the Olympics is a question they will have to address.

How soon is it going to be before we hear the darkly ironic complaint from the cream of Olympic sprinting that the Games are no longer fair because they have to run against a double amputee?