Some of you may have heard about the double-amputee from South Africa that has applied to race in the Olympics.

No?

Let me fill you in.

Oscar Pistorius is a world-champion Paralympic sprinter (100m, 200m, 400m) who has actually placed in races against able-bodied runners (2nd in the 400m at the South African National Championships). He asked the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) for permission to compete in the upcoming summer Olympics and has now been denied that ability, because, get this, they ruled that the prosthetics he wears to run, which are a curved blade-like “Cheetahs” give him an unfair advantage against able-bodied runners.

Let me repeat that.

A handicapped runner with legs that end at the knee has an unfair advantage against runners who have legs. And feet.

Does that sound stupid to anyone else?

Apparently, the IAAF had some scientists look at the composition of these “Cheetahs” and they found that they gave Pistorius more return on energy expelled than able-bodied athletes get from their feet. I call bullshit. The dude has no feet, no calves and has a hard time even standing while wearing these prosthetics, so how can they really be better than actual feet? Where did they get these “scientists?”

I hope that he gets a second opinion that will overrule the one that the IAAF made and that we see him compete against the best of the best at the next Olympics. Sure, he might not win or even place, but the fact that he can compete against some of the fastest people in the world is triumph enough, I think.

The most enjoyable tidbit of the whole story for me is that he only started sprinting to help himself rehab an injury he sustained while playing rugby. Rugby, the sport that’s more violent than American football. Well played, Oscar, well played.