Supertraining

BTW, some great analysis going on over at "The Science of Sport" by 
Dugas and Tucker:

http://scienceofsport.blogspot.com/2008/05/pistorius-verdict-comments-
and.html

Paul Rogers
Gympie, Australia

--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "carruthersjam" 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> 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.
> 
> ==================
> Jamie Carruthers
> Wakefield, UK
>