Unfair Disadvantage?
A double amputee sprinter sounds like the definition of an underdog, but Oscar Pistorius's prostheses allow him to do things that other humans cannot
WHEN SOUTH African sprinter Oscar Pistorius strode into the opening ceremony last Friday night on prosthetic lower legs, the roar was commensurate with his achievements. Not only is Pistorius his country's best hope in the 400 meters and the first double amputee ever to compete in the Olympics, he is also an A-list celebrity back home. By the time the London Games end, he may be a global star. And yet this moment almost didn't occur.
In January 2008, Pistorius, whose legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old because of a congenital defect, was barred from able-bodied competition by the IAAF, track's governing body, after a scientist it had commissioned to evaluate the runner's carbon-fiber Cheetah Flex-Feet claimed that the prosthetics allowed Pistorius to expend less energy than intact-limbed runners. But the ban was overturned later that year when a group of scientists proved to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that Pistorius tires at a normal rate and that energy efficiency has no more to do with sprinting than fuel efficiency does with drag racing.
Among the scientists was Hugh Herr, an MIT professor who has more than a little in common with Pistorius. Herr was a mountain-climbing prodigy at age 17, in 1982, when he lost both lower legs to frostbite suffered on a trek. Immediately he designed climbing-specific prostheses whose lengths he could change in mid-ascent. Almost as quickly, Herr's competitors wanted him disqualified from climbing competitions. Herr has been Pistorius's most vocal supporter, insisting that if anything, Pistorius is at a disadvantage.
The CAS ruling explicitly left open the possibility that the Cheetah legs could later be shown to confer other advantages, and the year after Pistorius was reinstated, two of the sprint biomechanics experts who helped clear him on energy efficiency contended that he nonetheless has a mechanical advantage. The controversy has followed Pistorius to London, where Michael Johnson, his friend and the 400-meter world-record holder, said that he should not be in the Olympics.
IT WAS dead obvious as soon as we saw the data that Oscar has an advantage," says Peter Weyand, a biomechanist at SMU and one of the scientists who led the testing on Pistorius. To understand his reasoning, it helps to know a bit about the mechanics of sprinting.
All sprinters run essentially the same way. Sure, Usain Bolt is 6'5" and flies down the track smirking, while Tyson Gay is 5'11" and runs with his eyelids peeled back. But biomechanically they are doing the same thing. At top speed, each piston pump of a sprinter's leg slams a foot down on the ground for less than a 10th of a second. In that instant—briefer than the blink of an eye—the sprinter applies enough force to propel himself forward and lift his body back into the air for slightly more than a 10th of a second. That's how long he needs to bring the other leg forward and pound the track once again. And it isn't just top male sprinters such as Bolt and Gay who have this in common. It is also female stars such as Allyson Felix and Carmelita Jeter—and other sprinters, male and female, who have no hope of getting past first-round heats in London.
A primary difference between the best sprinters and their slower competitors lies in how much force each one applies in that fraction of a second when his foot is on the ground. (An average person running at top speed applies a force of about twice his body weight; Gay applies closer to 2½ times his body weight.) The rate at which a sprinter swings his legs through the air might also seem important in differentiating him from his rivals, but all able-bodied sprinters swing their legs at nearly the same rate: about a third of a second between strides. "All the fast guys do it the same way," Weyand says. "If you know their top speed and their leg length, without knowing anything else you can predict the time they'll spend on the ground and the time in the air and the ground forces."
In 2000, Weyand and a team of researchers at Harvard published a study showing that nearly all humans, from couch potatoes to pro sprinters, have essentially the same leg-swing times when they achieve their maximum speed. Says Weyand, "The line we use around the lab is, From Usain Bolt to Grandma, they reposition their limbs in virtually the same amount of time."
But Pistorius's leg-swing times, when measured on a specially equipped treadmill, were off the charts. At top speed the South African swings his legs between strides in 0.284 of a second, which is about 20% faster than intact-limbed sprinters with the same top speed. "His limbs are 20% lighter," Weyand says, "and he swings them 20% faster."
This is important because it allows Pistorius to circumvent a main requirement of elite sprinting: putting high forces into the ground quickly. Because Pistorius can make up time with his rapid leg swing, he can leave his foot in contact with the ground longer than other sprinters. To attain the same speed, Pistorius applies lower forces (about 20% lower) over a longer time, instead of higher forces over a briefer time. In this he's like a cross-country skier, whose boot has a hinge at the toe that allows him to leave the ski down and continue to push, prolonging the time he can apply force.
The light weight of the Cheetah legs and the extra contact time with the ground give Pistorius a clear advantage. But the prostheses have drawbacks. Pistorius is slower at the start than his competitors are. Without ankles, he has to stand straight up out of the blocks and start bouncing to gain momentum.
The flexibility of the Cheetah legs is also a disadvantage, though how much is a source of disagreement. "It's like running on a mattress," Herr says. But Matthew Bundle, a biomechanist at Montana who worked with Herr and Weyand on the original study and sides with Weyand, counters, "Even if you factor in that force reduction of the prostheses [caused by the flexibility], Pistorius is still seven seconds faster over 400 meters than he would be if his limbs functioned as intact biological legs do." (That is, if his swing times were typical of able-bodied runners.)
Herr, defending Pistorius, contends that the South African's rapid swing times are merely compensation for the force deficit caused by the Cheetahs and that researchers may never be able to quantify all the advantages and disadvantages of running on carbon-fiber blades. To which Bundle says, "The technology is enabling him to do something that nobody else can do. That's the definition of an advantage."
BOTH IN scientific papers and in the press, Herr and colleagues who side with Pistorius have argued that his leg-swing time is not actually off the biological charts. "Regarding swing times," Herr says, "one would get really suspicious that there is augmentation if ... no one with a biological body has ever achieved that metric. But it's not the case." Herr and Pistorius have claimed that the swing time of U.S. sprinter Walter Dix was 0.274 of a second when Dix took bronze in the 100 meters in Beijing. But the video footage that led to that measurement was from NBC's television broadcast, whose frame rate is too slow for scientific research. When Dix was filmed with research-grade cameras at the 2007 and '08 U.S. championships, his leg-swing time in both instances was 0.32, consistent with that of other able-bodied sprinters.
SI reviewed more than 100 leg-swing times of professional sprinters taken with research-quality cameras, as well as peer-reviewed scientific journal reports on sprinters' swing times from the 1980s to the present. The fastest swing time reported was 0.30 of a second, by Trindon Holliday, the 5'5" Houston Texans wide receiver, when he was competing in the 100 at U.S. nationals in 2007. It was nowhere near the typical time of the 6'1" Pistorius.
"Thousands of amputees have used these springs and haven't even come close to his times," Herr says of Pistorius. But, says Craig Spence, a spokesman for the International Paralympic Committee, "there aren't too many double-leg amputees who compete [in sprints]. There are two or three, so therefore they're combined with the single-leg amputees."
The study of runners with one prosthesis has shed light on double amputees. "Single amputees are limited by the speed of their biological limb," Weyand says. "They can't swing both legs at drastically different speeds."
Ralph Mann, a silver medalist in the 400-meter hurdles in 1972 and USA Track and Field's biomechanist for sprints and hurdles, has analyzed high-speed film of elite sprinters in every U.S. championship since 1982 and in five Olympic Games. When he saw the Pistorius data, he says, "I came to the conclusion that he's not using normal human ground time and air time. Air times are basically the same for every sprinter on the planet, whether high school, collegiate or pro."
SI spoke with eight independent physiologists and biomechanists, and all agreed that Pistorius has abnormally low leg-swing times, stemming from the lightness of his prostheses. Four felt that Pistorius has an advantage over his competitors, while four said that there are potential disadvantages to the prostheses that must be studied in more detail before they could say if Pistorius should be allowed to race against intact runners.
In London the world will see a sprinter doing things that no one else has done, in terms of his leg-swing times and his perseverance. The scientific debate aside, Pistorius has become one of the Games' most uplifting figures. "What Oscar has done represents for a lot of people an unwillingness to accept expectations others might impose on you," Weyand says. "And that part is inspiring and makes you feel great about human nature."
On that, all can agree.
Michael Johnson said that he should not be in the Olympics.
FACT SHEET
In 2008, Pistorius underwent detailed testing, the results of which were compared with those of elite able-bodied sprinters who had similar performance. Here's how they matched up.
Aerial Time
Elite Sprinters:.136 of a second
Pistorius:.090 of a second
Ground Contact Time
Elite Sprinters:.094 of a second
Pistorius:.107 of a second
Leg-Swing Time
Elite Sprinters:0.359 of a second
Pistorius:0.284 of a second
Average Ground Force
Elite Sprinters:2.3 times body weight
Pistorius:1.84 times body weight
CAMERA, ACTION
Daily, exclusive photo galleries of all track and field events throughout the rest of the Games at SI.com/olympics
PHOTO
Photograph by MIKE POWELL
Fast Times Pistorius was initially ruled ineligible for the Olympics, and his reinstatement has only brought new questions.
PHOTO
DERYCK FOSTER/AP
On Track The 25-year-old Pistorius had both legs amputated when he was less than a year old, but he made the Olympics after running two Class A qualifying times in the past 12 months.
PHOTO
Photograph by MIKE POWELL
Stretch Runner Pistorius will represent South Africa in the Olympic 400 and 4 √ó 400 relay and return to London a few weeks later to defend his titles in the 100, 200 and 400 meters in the Paralympic Games.