Amputee runner back in the game, but are the data sound?

Darkfrog submitted, created time 6 months 5 hours (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

The fastest man on no legs has been un-disqualified from the Olympics. Oscar Pistorius, who runs on two prosthetic feet called Cheetahs, had been barred from inclusion in the Olympics because a team of scientists hired by the International Association of Athletics Federations ruled that his prostheses gave him an unfair advantage. A new study, performed at Mr. Pistorius's request, shows otherwise.

This article, unlike some of the more human-interest ones I've read, really delves into the studies themselves, how they were performed and what may have been wrong with them. For example, the original IAAF study only covered what they're calling the anaerobic part of a 400-meter sprint--which I personally think is more relevant than they're letting on because the 400-meter is Mr. Pistorius's event. Since it takes place over such a short period of time, it doesn't rely so much on the amount of oxygen that runners take in, a common way of measuring energy use. They measured lactic acid in the blood instead. Mr. Pistorius's advocates argued that lactic acid was not a reliable benchmark because different people break it down differently.

Keywords: Oscar Pistorius amputees athletics sports politics running olympics