healer

I've just spent the better part of an hour discussing (and half fighting) this issue with mandy.

I'm South African, so when I see my fellow countrymen doing well on the world stage, I applaud them. Let me state, however, that while Oscar's goals seem noble I don't believe that they'll be fair.

Nobody knows - without a doubt - whether his artificial limbs are a help or a hindrance. Whether it can ever be proven is also questionable. Let's say one day they do prove that his Cheetah's give him an advantage - he shouldn't then be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes, right? And if the converse were proven to be true, would he even want to compete with them?

mandy mentioned something that firms my opinion. Natalie du Toit, a South African swimmer, only has one and a half legs. She is allowed to - and does so - compete with able-bodied swimmers. She is an Olympic gold medalist. She doesn't swim with any prosthetics or device that would 'even the playing field' for her.

This is the approach I think should be followed with any disabled athlete wanting to compete in able-bodied events. I have no problem with them proving themselves against their able-bodied counterparts, but if they want to do so, let them do it without a possibly unfair technological advantage.

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