Talk:Oscar Pistorius/Archive 1

First time a disabled athlete competed in a top international event?

The article was edited recently to state that Oscar Pistorius's participation in the Golden Gala race in Rome on July 13, 2007 was the first time that a disabled athlete had competed against world-class runners in a top international meeting. I don't think this was the case. The citations I found and inserted into the article state that the Golden Gala was a warm-up for the Norwich Union British Grand Prix on July 15, and the July 11, 2007 article from the Daily Telegraph states that it was the July 15 race that was Pistorius's debut in a top international meeting. I've updated the article accordingly. Cheers, Jacklee 00:21, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Well done. We still need a citation for the claim that this was the first time that a disabled athlete competed against world-class runners in a top international meeting, so I replace the citation tag. Cheers, Doctormatt 01:44, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Marla Runyan may be considered a disabled runner who competed in the Olympics, so I think this claim about Pistorius, as stated, is false. Perhaps it should be changed to "first runner without fibulae to compete against world-class runners in a top international meeting". Doctormatt 01:57, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

That's a good point. I'll update the article to state something along the lines that Pistorious is the first bilateral leg amputee to compete against world-class runners in a top international meeting. Cheers, Jacklee 19:47, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

The edition about the "Golden Gala warm-up" was perfectly right. Golden Gala is one of the six best international meetings of IAAF (and last year, it was ranked 1st by IAAF!). Norwich Union is, in comparison, very low standard. Oscar Pistorius ran for the first time against "normal" athletes and his result was quite fine. His debut was in Rome.Enzino 20:27, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi, Enzino, can you find any citation (e.g., an on-line news article or reputable website) that backs up what you said about the Golden Gala being one of the IAAF's top six international meetings but the British Grand Prix being "very low standard"? There doesn't seem to be anything on the IAAF website on this. Also, the July 11, 2007 article in the Daily Telegraph seems to be correct in stating that Pistorius's participation in the British Grand Prix was more important than his participation in the Golden Gala, because in the Golden Gala he only took part in a B-race. According to the IAAF website at http://www.iaaf.org/gp07/results/eventCode=3789/gender=M/discipline=400/index.html, Pistorius's performance does not appear in the official result of the 400m race. Cheers, Jacklee 21:05, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I took out the claim "This is believed to be the first time a athlete who is a bilateral leg amputee competed against the world's best runners in a top international meeting." as weasel word-ish and uncited. Can anyone find a source so it can be put back in without the "believed to be" hedging? Cheers, Doctormatt 03:59, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

First, Golden Gala is in the first class of competitions as one of the six "Golden League" series. It was classed 1st in 2006 by the IAAF. Second, "Norwich Union" Sheffield is only "Grand Prix" meeting (in between "Super Grand Prix"). Third, IAAF disliked (unofficially) the participation of Pistorius at Golden Gala and tried to hide it as possible. Fourth, everything could verified with Athletics Annual 2007, edited by Peter Matthews and the ATFS (a British) and with Franco Bragagna, the RAI broadcast specialist of athletics. Internet is not the only source (and rarely the best one).-Enzino 16:17, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Hi, Enzino, that's very interesting. I have to say I don't know much about the world of athletics. If you have access to the Athletics Annual 2007 or other published sources (and of course can spare the time), perhaps you may want to find a suitable reference (title of article, author, date of publication, publisher, place of publication, page number, and other relevant bibliographical details if any) for the point that Pistorius's participation in the Golden Gala was more significant than in the Norwich Union British Grand Prix. Cheers, Jacklee 16:43, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

By the way, what is the significance of a runner taking part in a "B race"? Cheers, Jacklee 22:32, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

In top meetings, B-races results are summarized with A-races (there is no place for everybody in A-race, even in Rome). In the case of Pistorius, he asked to be in the 9th lane (there are 9 lanes at Olympic Stadium).

Here is the 2006 ranking of Top IAAF Meetings (there is no Sheffield in the official list):

2006 IAAF Ranking POSITION MEETING CAT NAT VENUE EVALUATION

• 1° Golden Gala GL ITA Rome 86.825
• 2° Athletissima SPG SUI Lausanne 86.619
• 3° Weltklasse Zürich GL SUI Zürich 86.518
• 4° Gaz de France Paris Saint-Denis GL FRA Paris 86.286
• 5° Athens Super Grand SPG GRE Athens 85.929
• 6° Memorial Van Damme GL BEL Brussels 85.899
• 7° Rieti 2006 GP ITA Rieti 85.577
• 8° DN Galan SPG SWE Stockholm 85.316
• 9° ISTAF Berlin GL GER Berlin 84.896
• 10° Bislett Games GL NOR Oslo 84.810
• 11° Herculis SPG MON Monaco 84.793
• 12° Norwich Union London Grand Prix SPG GBR London 84.510
• 13° Prefontaine Classic GP USA Eugene 84.453
• 14° 22nd Vardinoyiannia Area Permit Meeting GRE Réthimno 83.915
• 15° Norwich Union British Grand Prix GP GBR Gateshead 83.718
• 16° Meeting de Madrid 2006 GP ESP Madrid 83.575
• 17° GE Money Grand Prix GP FIN Helsinki 83.448
• 18° Qatar IAAF Super Tour SPG QAT Doha 83.083
• 19° KBC Night of Athletics Area Permit Meeting BEL Heudsen 83.033
• 20° Reebok Grand Prix Area Permit Meeting USA New-York 83.012

—The preceding comment is by Enzino (talk • contribs) 5 August 2007, 22:07 (UTC): Please sign your posts!

Hi, Enzino, that's great. Did you obtain this information from a website or a printed source? If so, what is it? We can mention it in the article. Cheers, Jacklee 22:29, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh, so B-races are of equal importance to A-races? I suppose then, that the reason why Pistorius's name doesn't appear in the official results of the 400m race at the Golden Gala on the IAAF website (http://www.iaaf.org/gp07/results/eventCode=3789/gender=M/discipline=400/index.html) is because although he was second in the B-race, he was still slower than other runners in the A-race. Is that right? Cheers, Jacklee 11:31, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Exact!-Enzino 15:06, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Perpetual motion?

"Additionally, Professor Robert Gailey of the University of Miami claimed that they return only 80% of the energy they absorb, about a third of what an organic leg returns."

I checked the referenced article, and indeed it claims that an organic leg returns up to 240% of the energy absorbed. I'm not a physics expert but that claim sounds rather dodgy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by WombatDeath (talk • contribs) 02:54, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

From this article (part of the ref - see pg 6) - the organic leg GENERATES more than twice the energy that was stored when the foot struck down - presumably also using energy in muscles, etc (I'm no sports scientist!). The artifical leg is predominantly using the 'spring' to return 80% of the force stored when struck down - there's no additional energy added in this case. Paulbrock (talk) 20:22, 9 December 2007 (UTC)