Can Oscar Pistorius blur the boundaries between able and disabled?
Whatever transpires when he takes to the track Pistorius must hope that this event scotches some of the myths that surround him. He is sick of restating his case, particularly since the night of 19 July when he ran 45.07sec over 400m, making him the 18th fastest man over one lap of track this year. It gave him the "A" qualifying standard for the world championships and meant that, all of a sudden, some people saw him not as "disabled" but "too-abled" because of the blades he wears.As Roger Black has said: "The faster he runs, the more people are going to say that he has an advantage and we are not on a level playing field." It is worth stepping back and reconsidering the role technology plays in enabling athletes. Since Mo Farah began training with Alberto Salazar at the start of this year, he has had access to, among other things, an anti-gravity treadmill, an underwater treadmill and a cryosauna. Farah is in the best form of his life. Try telling Farah's rivals from, for instance, Eritrea and Uganda, that they are on "a level playing field" when they toe the start-line.
Pistorius is not the first athlete to face these issues. Aimee Mullins, a double-amputee below the knee, was competing as a sprinter at national college level in the USA as long ago as 1995. She wore an early version of the Cheetah flex-foot which Pistorius uses today. In 2012 she will be the chef de mission for the US Paralympic team. She believes the criticism of Pistorius stems from a deeply ingrained prejudice: "If we allow a person, one who we view as our inferior, in whatever way, to play with us, and then that person beats us, what does that say about us?"