Part of what may frustrate IAAF officials is the lack of research done on amputee athletes. That, says Gailey and others say, is due to the small pool of elite athletes available for study, and the fact that research money is used primarily to develop prosthetics to help people walk better.
That's changing. Today, bionics and robotics are two main areas of prosthetic research. Herr has developed the first powered, computer-controlled robotic ankle that allows a faster and more natural gait. It will be available to consumers in about a year, he says. He also developed Ossur's Rheo Knee, which contains a microprocessor that adapts to changes in speed, load and terrain.
At Northwestern University's Prosthetic Research Laboratory and Rehabilitation Engineering Research Program, director Steven Gard says his lab is working on a foot and ankle mechanism that will better adapt to changing terrains and walking speeds. Erik Schaffer, a certified prosthetist and owner of A Step Ahead, a prosthetics and orthotics company in New York, says he's inspired by the athletes he works with to develop new and better prosthetics "as athletes push the boundaries." But prostheses are still not as strong and powerful as biological limbs. Nor are they linked to the nervous system, Herr says, which would allow a person to "think and have the limb respond, so it behaves automatically in an appropriate way."
Yet he and others working on improving prosthetics are sure that one day the devices will be more integrated with the human body. And here's where the debate about amputee versus able-bodied athletes gets even thornier: "Our goal is to design a running prosthetic that would actually give an amputee an advantage" over an able-bodied person, Herr says.
The artificial leg would actually save energy as it propels someone along. So as Pistorius narrows the gap between disabled and able-bodied athletes, technology could eventually split them apart again.
"If there are no constraints placed on what technology can be used," Herr says, "at some point there will be an advantage the amputee athlete has. In the future, Paralympic running times will be faster than the Olympics."
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jeannine.stein@latimes.com
