The Right Proportions

Is it my imagination or did the Paralympics this year generate more interest than in the past? Perhaps it was due to the fact that our time zone coincided with the Olympic venue, or perhaps the media coverage was better than years gone by? I found myself enjoying them more as a pure sporting event rather than a spectacle. This year the Paralympics appeared to have all the ingredients for success. Fantastic venues, colour, variety, controversy, and achievements.

I for one welcome the controversy surrounding Oscar Pistorius. In a strange way I felt proud that the South African star was at the centre of things. So often we see athletes from other countries setting standards and pushing the envelope, this time we were doing it, or more specifically Oscar was doing it. I was pleased he voiced his concern following the shock 200m defeat. Perhaps the timing could have been better but the point needed to be made, and it was, in no uncertain terms, and set the tone for the rest of the championships. I was sorry that Oscar felt that he needed to apologise for his statements, if anything the International Paralympic Committee should have been the one apologising. The research and development of prosthetic sporting equipment has seen rapid development in recent years, while the sports administrators have been dragging their proverbial heels on how to manage them for some time, hence they are now finding themselves to be somewhat short of the winning line. The question of the length of carbon fibre blades has been an issue a long time coming, in this case it happened to bubble over into the public domain during the Paralympics.

It all comes down to proportions. This was brought home to me whilst watching Oscar win his 400m heat, and was reinforced again during the 400m final. The camera followed him down the home straight, keeping pace with Oscar as he ran. What struck me was how “able-bodied” he looked, and the fact that he had a genuine natural rhythm to his running. This was in stark contrast to some of his competitors who appeared to be barely in control of their legs throughout the race. No doubt Oscar’s performance is due to his intensive training, but a large part of his running style has to do with the fact that his blades are in proportion to the length his legs would be if he had them. Therein lies the key. There is no issue with a single leg amputee because the prosthetic leg has to be made in proportion to the other, normal leg. With a double amputee however one does not have that limitation, but, and it is an important but, there are physical proportions to take into account. Make them too short and one looks stunted, make them too long and one begins to resemble a running spider!  An orthopaedic surgeon would be able to tell us exactly what the proportions of a person’s leg would be depending on the size of their upper body. There are accepted norms that are well documented which give the proportions of upper body to hips, hips to knees, and knees to feet. These are the proportions which Oscar had to conform to in order to participate in the able-bodied Olympics, and in my opinion that decision was correct. The dimensions and construction of his blades sparked a tremendous amount of controversy but I believe that the decisions taken have borne fruit in a positive manner which could not have been imagined at the time.

If prosthetic dimensions are allowed to be extended beyond the physical norm we run the risk of the Paralympics, or any disabled sporting competitions, becoming freak shows. The potential is there for disproportionately long legs for the runners, and outlandishly long arms for the javelin throwers. In some strange way however I think a sense of normality returned during that Paralympic 400m final race when a steady, controlled and rhythmical run triumphed over what we are quite an obviously abnormal prosthetic limbs. I imagine that a few sporting prosthetic researchers might have gone home to their drawing boards and decided that while some of their running blades appeared revolutionary on paper they were perhaps not practical on the racetrack.

I admire Oscar for his willingness and determination to challenge the accepted norm for disabled sports people. His place is secure in history as the first disabled athlete to run in the Olympics, but I believe his greatest victory has been to run in the Paralympics in a manner befitting of an able-bodied sprinter.