Oscar Pistorious, a South African double amputee sprinter, was in the news recently. Researchers at Southern Methodist University recently discovered that his legs lower his time by 10 seconds from if he had normal legs. The study showed that because his prosthetics are lightweight, he is able to reposition them far faster than a regular sprinter. His blade legs also lower the amount of muscle force needed to run. He was originally banned to compete against able-bodied sprinters in January 2008 by the IAAF, but that was changed in May of 2008 and he is now allowed to compete against regular runners. He was allowed to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics but failed to qualify for the team. He now hopes to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics using his lightweight blade legs.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 6:37 pm and is filed under amputees, Legs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.