Supertraining

Ken Jakalski kindly sent me the below article:

http://www.rice.edu/nationalmedia/news051608oscar.shtml

Houston, TX -- (May 16, 2008) -- A world-renowned team of experts in 
biomechanics and physiology from six universities, led by Professor 
Hugh Herr of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, 
refutes scientific claims that the prostheses worn by Oscar 
Pistorius, a 21-year-old South African bilateral amputee track 
athlete, provide him with an unfair advantage in the 400-meter race. 
Their conclusions were based on data collected at the Rice University 
Locomotion Laboratory, under the direction of Professor Peter Weyand. 
Pistorius hopes to run in the 400-meter race at the Beijing Olympics 
this summer. 

Based on the team's findings, the Court of Arbitration for Sport 
(CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland, has ruled that Pistorius is eligible 
to participate in International Association of Athletics Federations 
(IAAF) sanctioned competitions. If he qualifies for the 2008 Beijing 
games, Pistorius would be the first disabled athlete ever to run 
against able-bodied athletes in an Olympic event. 

The team's findings were presented to the CAS April 29-30 by Herr and
Professor Rodger Kram of the University of Colorado at Boulder, and 
provided the foundation for Pistorius' appeal to overturn the IAAF 
decision that previously banned him from running against able-bodied 
athletes in races that are governed by IAAF rules. The team's 
findings were presented at the CAS, where Pistorius was represented 
by the international law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf on a pro-bono basis. 

In addition to Herr, Weyand and Kram, the panel of experts included 
Professor Matthew Bundle from the University of Wyoming, an expert in 
the energetics and mechanics of sprinting performance; Craig McGowan, 
from the University of 
Texas at Austin, a leading authority on muscle, tendon and joint 
mechanics;
Alena Grabowski, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an 
expert in human locomotor energetics and biomechanics; and Jean-
Benoît Morin from the University of Saint-Etienne, an expert in the 
mechanics of human running performance. 

None received compensation for their research or participation in the 
hearing. The authors plan to submit the study to a peer-reviewed 
journal now that the legal case has been settled.  

The scientific team was asked to evaluate the IAAF's initial claim 
that the Cheetah Flex-Foot prostheses (J-shaped, high-performance 
prostheses used for running) worn by Pistorius give him an advantage 
over able-bodied runners. The team concluded that the scientific 
evidence put forth by the IAAF investigation to ban Pistorius was 
fundamentally flawed. "While an athlete's performance in sprints of 
very short duration is determined almost entirely by mechanical 
factors, in races of longer duration, such as the 400m, performance 
depends on both mechanical and metabolic factors," said Herr, a 
bilateral amputee who heads the MIT Media Lab's Biomechatronics 
research group. 

Based on this performance link, the scientists refuted the IAAF 
findings on two major points: the speed-duration relationship and 
rates of metabolic energy expenditure. 

Specifically, the scientists concluded that:

• Pistorius' ability to maintain speed over the course of longer 
sprints--his speed-duration relationship--is essentially identical to 
that of able-bodied runners, indicating that he fatigues in the same 
manner as able-bodied sprinters.

 • Pistorius' rates of metabolic energy expenditure do not differ 
from elite non-amputee runners. In particular, he has nearly the same 
running economy, or rate of oxygen consumption at submaximal speeds, 
and a similar maximal rate of oxygen consumption as elite non-amputee 
runners. 

"Based on the data collected at Rice, the blades do not confer an 
enhanced ability to hold speed over a 400m race," Weyand said.  "Nor 
does our research support the IAAF's claims of how the blades provide 
some sort of mechanical advantage for sprinting."

"The study commissioned by the IAAF claimed that Pistorius has a 25 
percent energetic advantage at 400m race speeds. That claim is 
specious because anaerobic energy supply cannot be quantified," Kram 
said.  

In summary, the team of experts unanimously concluded that the IAAF 
allegations were not scientifically valid.

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Jamie Carruthers
Wakefield, UK