Blade Runner

This summer, Oscar Pistorius (nicknamed the "Blade Runner") became the first below the knee double amputee to compete in the Olympic games. Born with bilateral fibular hemimelia (congenital absence of the fibula), Oscar's parents had his legs amputated at 11 months of age, and he first learned to walk using prosthetics. Introduced to running at 17, Oscar runs on a pair of Flex-Foot Cheetah carbon-fibre blades developed by biomedical engineer Van Phillips and manufactured by Icelandic company Össur. Oscar, holding the Paralympic world record in the T44 class in the 200 and 400 metre events, previously held the record for the 100 metre as well, and a personal best time of 45.07 s in the 400 m, is known as the fastest man on no legs. He competes on the South African paralympic team, and this summer qualified to compete in the 400 m and 4 x 400 m race in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Oscar's journey to the Olympics has been fraught with controversy. Initial studies in 2007 showed that his carbon-fibre legs gave him a significant advantage when running at top speed in a straight line, and thus rendered him ineligible to compete in the normal Olympics. He appealed this decision, and the subsequent trial reversed this previous ruling on the grounds that his prosthetic legs are a disadvantage at starting from blocks and during acceleration, and that there is no evidence that his high tech legs give him any net-advantage over able-bodied athletes. Other studies on single below the knee amputees have found that the stiffer carbon-fibre prosthetics generate 9% less power than biological legs.

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Flex-Foot Cheetah blades

NPR: Studying Oscar Pistorius: Does The 'Blade Runner' Have An Advantage?