Not Disabled

This sounds like a script for a corny sci-fi movie, but it's actually playing out. A South African "disabled" guy, Oscar Pistorius, is running on prosthetic legs at a pace that just missed making the able-bodied Olympics in the 400 meters. He needed to get under 45.55 to qualify, but came a bit short in his last meet with 46.25. He all but owns the Paralympics running events, but wanted to be in the regular Olympics; he still might get named to the South African 4X400 relay team.

It's a testament to both Pistorius and the status of artificial limbs that he's able to hang with the best runners in the world on artificial legs. The ruling bodies of track tried to keep him from running with the regular track folks, thinking that his artificial legs are springier and easier to run on than normal legs, giving him an unfair advantage, but follow-up tests proved otherwise.

Pistorius is only 21, so the 2012 Olympics are still very feasible. If he can make it then, he may wind up being a $6 million man; he doesn't have Steve Austin's speed, but he might have "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's bank account if he can get a notch faster and make an Olympic final. He'll be very marketable if he can pull this off, and is probably already getting some ad feelers.

Interesting thought; what happens when we get better-than-human prosthetics, so that we get real-life Steve Austins? We're not there yet, but Pistorius shows that we're not that far away from that.

Comments

[alan]

We can rebuild him. We can make him better than he was before.

[Mark Byron]

We have the technology. [Cue the theme music]