Banning Amputees Essay

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In 2008, Oscar Pistorius had been banned from the Olympics due to his prosthetics. Through intense research the IAAF had claimed that they had found data that pointed toward Oscar having an advantage with his prosthetic limb. His advantage would breach one of the qualifying rules which is that an athlete may not use any device that gives them an advantage. However the CAS had ruled that the data the IAAF found was inconclusive and the disqualification of Pistorius was uncalled for (Chappell). Ethics of banning amputees from the Olympics has arisen due this controversy. The ADA protects all amputees from unfair exclusion and “The Practice and Compliance Manual” identifies effective rules and procedures in admitting new athletes. Yet, forcing …show more content…

This can be taken as either an advantage or disadvantage, however it does not remove the fact that the technique of an abled-bodied athlete will be different. However, Greenemeier also found out that Oscar had used 17% less energy than elite runner. This points to a large advantage as that is a large portion of energy other able-bodied athletes may have had to use. The research the IAAF showed Greenemeier had revealed even more biological advantages, this may include; repositioning times, oxygen used energy wasted and returned and even how the body uses a prosthetic limb. These lab results is what the IAAF presented and disqualified Oscar for. Some may argue still has to cope with the loss of energy return from the ankles however, researchers found that ankles would be less efficient than Oscar’s prosthetics (Gibbs). Hassani, who has a PhD in statistics, found in his research that some amputee types actually have advantage each other. This makes allowing more amputees into the Olympics as they may be paired with another athlete that innately has the advantage or disadvantage. Both Gibbs, a renowned TIMES writer and Hassani had reached the conclusion that Oscar and other amputee athletes have some advantage (Hassani)

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