Pistorius is too good for Olympics

ORN: 4.17 in 45:03. 'Twas a temperate 34° today by the river. I passed a huge coal [or asphalt] barge. I leaped over some ice. My legs felt some strange combination of heavy, weak, and tight. Although I ran faster than I did Monday, today it felt more forced, harder. Not like I was working harder and pushing myself but like my legs were pushing through molasses.

I first learned about Oscar Pistorius in Wired Magazine. Born without his lower legs, the South African overcame this idiosyncrasy to become one of the fastest people in the world. Like most athletes of a certain caliber, his dream was to compete in the Olympics against the best of the best. Unfortunately, this week, the Olympic governing body has decided he's too good -- his prosthetics give him an advantage over people with organic legs. The IAAF decided that the Cheetahs allow him to run the same speed while using 25% less energy than meat legs.

That sucks for him, but I can understand it. The sports world has taken a hard line against performance enhancing technologies -- drugs being most notable -- and this decision is consistent with that policy as far as I can tell. It is unfortunate that it keeps certain world-class athletes like Pistorius out of the competition, but the greater sin would be to allow one type of performance enhancing tech and forbid all others. The thing I wonder is if Pistorius's legs were 100% functionally equivalent to meat legs would the sports world still accept him? Or would there still be a prejudice against him for being something more or less than human?

Me? I am all for what is known as transhumanism [defined here as the notion that people can and should be allowed to surpass the limitations of their natural selves through technology.] But I am more in favor of consistency. So long as the sporting world is consistent with its rulings -- outlawing performance enhancing drugs, blood doping, and prosthetics allowing more human-than-human performance -- then I am OK with it. I am also in favor of throwing the gates wide open, to allow any and all means of gaining an edge. Just be consistent.

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