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SALT LAKE CITY - Oscar Pistorius is a runner who lost his legs below his knees and uses prosthetic blades as legs to help him run. It was originally ruled that a man without legs had an unfair advantage, he ran in this Olympics as it was ruled legal, and Utah's Tosh Orthopedics has proven no unfair advantage.
It's a long way from London, but two years ago the Tosh Lab in Murray had researchers collect data that shows an athletic amputee does not have an unfair advantage with his prosthetic limb
The lab set up a unique machine that electronically dissects an athlete's performance in the raw, so to speak. Researchers see the intricate physics of movement in joints, limbs, muscles and more.
At the height of the debate on whether Pistorius would have an unfair advantage with his spring bladed artificial legs - the Universities of Colorado and Idaho collaborated with TOSH - testing 12 high caliber amputee athletes from around the country.
Dr. Bill McDermott and his colleagues started the treadmill at designated speeds which for some athletes was 19 to 22 miles per hour.
"Then they had to actually lower themselves onto the treadmill using handrails, run for approximately ten strides while we collected their information, then jump off," McDermott said.
Some athletes had the same prosthetic limbs Pistorius used in his competition. Running with force and bouncing with strides mimicking a kangaroo?
Hardly!
Unlike two natural legs which move in straight lines and with fine-tuned coordination - the prosthetic limbs swing wide.
"We see a lot of circumduction where the limb has to swing out and around and not through and underneath the center mass of body," McDermott said.
That costs the amputee athletes extra energy and unnecessary rotation. The prosthetic limb also extends in length after leaving the ground forcing the runner to swing wide on the comeback to avoid scraping the track. To run faster, able bodied athletes exert more force when their intact foot hits the ground. But the prosthetic leg drops which much lower force. Controlling stability and balance is a real challenge.
"So you can imagine this would be quite a challenge to run down a narrow lane at the top speed and even negotiate the turns," McDermott said.
All this and more makes Pistorius' performance even more remarkable.
"And I also think his level of sportsmanship and respect of where he is now, what he's accomplished both on and off the track is amazing," McDermott said. "We should see that in all our athletes."
We will in able bodied runners paying a new found respect to Oscar Pistorius, who with the science to back him up now, took on an unprecedented challenge in the Summer Games.
