Recently the world went nuts over Steroid use in professional baseball, and there was talk of marking the record books with Asterisks to note players who were using modern medicine to their advantage.
I get the concern. Steroids allow for players to bulk up faster and easier, and recover from injury faster. Still where does the line get drawn? There was a time when certain injuries were career ending, but now can be healed with surgery. And then there are stories like this:
Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius will compete at the Olympic Games after he was named in both the individual 400m and the South Africa 4x400m relay squad for London 2012.
The four-time Paralympic Games gold medalist won a silver medal as part of South Africa’s 4x400m relay at the World Championships in Daegu last year, although he was left out of the line-up for the final…He will become the first Paralympian to compete in track and field at the able bodied Olympics.
Far enough back in history, not having one, let alone two functional legs was simply a death sentence, prosthesis allowed injured and people with congenital defects to live a limited life. Now we have a guy who’s competing with the best runners in the world who is missing both of his legs.
Frankly I see no point in fighting against the tide. Let the best man win, and part of humanity is advanced technology. The Asterisk is simply the mark of progress.
Modern medicine is kind of a troubling thing because frankly professional athletes have always been using modern medicine to perform better. Amputees are something else though. Would you think a track meet between a full body replacement cyborg and any normal human would be a fair competition? We’re slowly creeping towards that.
Its a fair point. Still let’s say we live in a world like Masamune Shirow’s “Ghost in the Shell” where most people are less than 50% organic human, would these cyborgs still be considered human and enjoy all the rights and benefits of humanity?
Its a fair and VERY messy question that covers a LOT more ground than fair sport!
There are all kinds of enhancements in sport…
Should we mark an asterisk where it was discovered that spring training improves baseball performance? The introduction of Gateraid? Slap skates? Non-conforming golf balls?
Some enhancements are “kosher”, some are not. The rules define the game, and anybody who breaks them should lie outside the game. Yet to be known is if this will result in new rules about amputees.
Or for that matter, catamarans qualifying as a twelve mete yacht. Stars and Stripes II was one of my all time favorite “but the rules don’t specifically say mono-hull…” moments in sports. It’s all in how the game is played.