On Athletics: The old performance-enhancing debate has resurfaced in recent weeks, and thanks to the "Blade Runner", now extends beyond the traditional steroids and blood doping. The Blade Runner, for those who haven't heard of him, is 20-year-old Oscar Pistorius, a South African sprinter who, like so many fellow athletes, is aiming at next year's Olympics in Beijing. Pistorius is less than a second away from the 400 metres qualifying time but that's only half his battle.
Even if he does qualify, there's now the increasing likelihood Pistorius won't be allowed to compete, and that's taken the performance-enhancing debate to a new level. He hasn't yet broken any rules, but he's about to force the rewriting of them. Otherwise it could be the end of world athletics as we know it.
Pistorius was born without fibulae - the calf-muscle bones - in both legs, resulting in a double amputation below the knee when he was just 11 months. His father, Henke, has recalled his repeated bullying as a child, until one day he kicked his abusers with one of his prosthetic limbs - and Pistorius has been standing up for himself in other ways ever since.
His coach, Ampie Louw, has described him as a "natural champion". After learning to walk on prosthetics as well as any able-bodied child, Pistorius soon developed a keen interest in sport, and later took up athletics as rehabilitation from a rugby injury. To facilitate his growing love of sprinting, he started to use j-shaped carbon-fibre prosthetics, custom made by the Icelandic firm, Ossur, and available to disabled athletes for 11 years. Known somewhat ironically as "Cheetah" blades - and inspired by the cheetah's rear leg - they soon earned Pistorius the nickname Blade Runner, not least because of his ability to cut through air with the speed of a blade.
At 17 he won the 200 metres at the Paralympic Games in Athens, and since then lowered the double-amputee world record over 100, 200 and 400 metres. Last year, as a new challenge, he started to race in standard athletics competitions, and last March finished second in the 400 metres at the South African championship, beating some of the county's leading able-bodied athletes in the process.
His best time for the one-lap race stands at 46.56 seconds, and given his youth and potential for further physical development, it seems inevitable he will go quicker. The A-standard qualifying time for Beijing is 45.55, and the B-standard 45.95 - times he's aiming at over the next 12 months. "I have a dream of competing at the Olympic Games in Beijing," he said recently - and is adamant that his "Cheetah" blades offer no unfair advantage over able-bodied athletes.
"They are passive devices. If anything I am at more of a disadvantage. I have no ankles. There is less blood flowing through my body. I have no calf muscles so I have to use more muscles to do what they would. These exact feet have been used for 14 years and there has never been a paralympic sprinter to run my times."
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) earlier this year drew up a new rule prohibiting the use "of any technical device that provides an advantage over another athlete not using the device". Facing pressure, and objection from Pistorius, the IAAF agreed to suspend the rule pending further research into the use of such technical devices. They are now working with Pistorius to decide whether the blades offer any advantage, including video analysis of his running. It's clear which way the IAAF are thinking, with their technical director Nick Davies saying they have "nothing against disabled athletes", but "we do believe these are technical aids".
Their concerns are for real. Further advances in "Cheetah blade" technology could result in greater stride length of over four metres - well beyond human ability. The release of energy from blades could also be improved with better technology. And the other concern is purely physiological, and the theory that Pistorius doesn't suffer any lactic acid build-up in his blades - the stuff which forces muscles to tie up in able-bodied athletes - and therefore has more blood to nourish the rest of his body.
So far this summer Pistorius has raced in two IAAF grand prix meetings, in Sheffield and Rome, and while he finished down on the leaders on both occasions, the rapid advancements in prosthetic technology could soon change that.
Since the US campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq began, more than 600 soldiers have returned home without arms or legs, thanks in part to body armour which has saved lives that would have been lost in earlier wars. This has prompted the Pentagon to give $50 million in funding to the DARPA project - Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency - whose goal is to produce fully humanlike replacement arms and legs.
And they're not that far off. An article in this week's The New Yorker told of 23-year-old former Marine, Claudia Mitchell, who is now known as the world's first "bionic woman" after her prosthetic arm was wired up to sensory nerves, effectively rewiring a human to work with a machine. This is no longer futuristic technology, which is why the IAAF is so keen to address the issue. The prospect of these bionic athletes lining up at the Olympic Games is not that far down the line. They have every right to be there, but not if they hold an unfair advantage.
In the meantime Tom Hanks is rumoured to be have bid for the rights to Pistorius's life story. His courage and determination is the stuff of Hollywood, and Pistorius is proving an inspiration for disabled athletes. If only technology wasn't such a wonderful thing.
