Sprinters of Steel: Are Prosthetics Serving As an Advantage in Races?

Able-Bodied sprinters beside their blade-runner competitors(BBC News)

“On your mark, get set, go!”

These are the words that every runner hears throughout their career. Whether it’s a race during recess, or across the Olympic stage, this phrase is what starts the clock for the time that defines their career as a runner. As technology began to advance, these starting lines have become more diverse, specifically by including amputee runners who use blades(or prosthetics) to run beside their able-bodied athletes. However, this has caused the question of if these prosthetics are giving their runners an unfair advantage in comparison to their able-bodied competitors to arise. The answer? Well, let's find out.

So, what exactly are blades?

Blade prosthetics are specialized, C shape prosthetics that use lightweight layers of carbon fiber  in order to propel a runner forward when they hit the ground. The first double-amputee sprinter to compete at the national level was Oscar Pistorius, who used the Ossur carbon fiber blades, which were modeled after the hind legs of a cheetah. One of the biggest advantages of these prosthetics is their weight. Compared to the weight of an average competitor's lower legs and feet, blades are much easier to move, and require a lot less effort, which causes people to believe that these inventions therefore have a built in advantage. However, these prosthetics do have their faults. Since they are simply meant to mimic an actual limb, they do not include the full range of motion that a normal leg gives. Motion-selection time delays are very common in these prosthetics. With this, it's quite difficult to draw a conclusion on whether these blades really serve as an advantage. The only thing left to do is to see how they perform.

A Race Against the Facts

In 2008, Oscar Pistorius was banned from competing against able-bodied competitors and had to undergo a series of evaluations regarding whether his blades were the reason for his multitude of victories. According to researchers from Rice University, Pistorius used 17% less energy than that of sprinters with intact limbs. Additional tests also confirmed that it took the blade runner 21% less time to reposition his legs after every stride. In Larry Greenmeier’s article, “Blade Runners: Do High-Tech Prostheses Give Runners an Unfair Advantage?”He writes that even other researchers from Southern Methodist University state that they saw, “a clear overall advantage in Pistorius’s faster leg swings and more energy-efficient stride, which they said could create up to a seven-second advantage in the 400-meter race”(Greenmeier). With these statistics and in-depth analysis, it's clear to see that the time advantage goes to the blade runner. The time and energy they save by using these legs of carbon fiber, ultimately results in them having a more efficient stride, something they can hold on to more than a normal runner in the 400-meter.

 Nevertheless, new studies have come out in the past few years that disprove this idea of blade runners having the upper-hand. In Lisa Marshell’s, “World’s fastest blade runner gets no competitive advantage from prostheses, study shows,”, Owen Beck, a postdoctoral at Emory University, stated his research showed that,”Athletes using prostheses were 40% slower out of the starting blocks, had 19% slower velocity at aerobic capacity and were 1 to 3% slower around curves compared to non-amputees”(Marshell). Well with these statistics, it is sure to reverse blade runners’ bad reputation! Not exactly. While this evidence does show how blade runners do not have as much of an edge that many believe they do, the debate on these sprinters of steel is not yet over. 

One On The Track

With this new data, it's not as easy to come to a concrete conclusion on whether or not blade runners truly have an advantage on the track. While these athletes have their disadvantages, are they outweighed by the advantages? Even researchers themselves remain unsure. As prosthetics continue to advance, perhaps there will be more of a clear answer in the future. As of now, the only thing known for sure, is that all athletes, able -bodied or not, give it their all to win the same title that defines who they really are to the world. Number one. 

References

‌Greenemeier, Larry. “Blade Runners: Do High-Tech Prostheses Give Runners an Unfair Advantage?” Scientific American, 5 Aug. 2016, www.scientificamerican.com/article/blade-runners-do-high-tech-prostheses-give-runners-an-unfair-advantage/ .

Lindstrom, Sieg. “Oscar Pistorius | Biography & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 3 Apr. 2023, www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Pistorius.

Marshall, Lisa. “World’s Fastest Blade Runner Gets No Competitive Advantage from Prostheses, Study Shows.” CU Boulder Today, 5 Jan. 2022, www.colorado.edu/today/2022/01/05/worlds-fastest-blade-runner-gets-no-competitive-advantage-prostheses-study-shows.

“The Science of Running Blades. Ossur.com.” Www.ossur.com, www.ossur.com/en-us/prosthetics/information/science-of-running-blades.

“Olympic Authorities Need to “Step In” over Running Blades - Inventor.” BBC Sport, 20 July 2016, www.bbc.com/sport/disability-sport/36838266.

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