Adarq.org

gah, fuck that kid, life is so unfair.



why, yes, yes i would.

Stan van Gundy (or Ron Jeremy, not sure) displaying his dribbling skills:

http://www.sportsgrid.com/nba/either-stan-van-gundy-has-hired-a-stunt-double-or-he-is-remarkably-athletic-for-such-a-round-man/

Double amputee, Oscar Pistorius, make top qualifying standards for the Olympics. (Not the paralympics... he already has world records in those)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6smGf875jck" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6smGf875jck</a>

He probably wont be able to compete though, unless they changed the rules. I remember some years back and double amputee ran some fast 400m and could not compete in the olympics and world champs.

Can't these artificial legs help? I don't want to sound like a jerk but can't they actually give you an advantage?

yes, they can. he's basically not even doing the same thing as running, mechanically speaking.

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2007/07/oscar-pistorius-science-and-engineering.html

From a different (later) post on that site:

Pistorius had an eventful year off the track - a boating accident which was alleged to have been the result of alcohol, a night in jail after allegations of assault, and finally, a research publication by his own scientists which suggested that he enjoyed an advantage of 10 seconds in a 400m race.

Read his dispute over prosthetics in wikipedia. It's all well cited, at least from the bits I've read. CAS actually repealed IAAF's ban on him because they didn't present enough evidence to show he had an unfair advantage, especially when weighed against his disadvantages like his slower starts. (In the video you can see he's still behind everyone at around the 150m mark.

doesn't matter. he's NOT RUNNING. what he's doing is a different thing. the fact that his disadvantage in the start might make up for his huge advantage in the upright portion of the race doesn't deny the fact that the blades give him a huge advantage while moving forward at high speed.

plus it's only a matter of time before they come up with blades that eliminate the problems with the start. what, are they gonna calibrate the technology so it meets some random standard for correlation with human speed?

I'd like to see this paper or whatever that says he's not actually running. Not to be rude or anything, I'm actually genuinely interested. Whether or not he runs doesn't change the fact that he's a beast. He's still the world record holder in the paralympics for the 100m and 200m.

click on the link in my earlier post.

Quote from: Zetz on August 07, 2011, 02:22:47 pm

Read his dispute over prosthetics in wikipedia. It's all well cited, at least from the bits I've read. CAS actually repealed IAAF's ban on him because they didn't present enough evidence to show he had an unfair advantage, especially when weighed against his disadvantages like his slower starts. (In the video you can see he's still behind everyone at around the 150m mark.

doesn't matter. he's NOT RUNNING. what he's doing is a different thing. the fact that his disadvantage in the start might make up for his huge advantage in the upright portion of the race doesn't deny the fact that the blades give him a huge advantage while moving forward at high speed.

plus it's only a matter of time before they come up with blades that eliminate the problems with the start. what, are they gonna calibrate the technology so it meets some random standard for correlation with human speed?

Whether or not you want to consider what he is doing as "running" or not is immaterial to the debate.  The salient point is that blades dramatically change the dynamics of the race.  Pistorius seems to be really passionate about track and field and it's very much a feel good story which gets track and field some more exposure (which it desperately needs).  The CAS decision was purely political. 
This will go on until Oscar (or another para athlete) runs a world leading time or wins a diamond league event.  Only then will the able-bodied athletes federations whose medals and money he is taking point out the litany of differences between running on compressive blades...