I’ve been doing, or more accurately, I did, triathlons for a few years up until a couple years ago. During that time, myself and other technology geeks like me would marvel over each others’ aerodynamic, carbon fiber bikes or slicker-than-skin, speed-increasing wetsuits. I suppose I’ll admit to trying to improve my times through purchasing better equipment so I could spend a few more mornings sleeping in instead of training.
During this same time I witnessed hundreds of competitors with one or more prosthetic legs competing in the same races that I was. These racers had really incredible prosthetic attachments shaped like inverted question marks and made of the same materials used on my fancy bike, like titanium and carbon fiber. (I’ve since learned that the Icelandic company Ossur is one of the leading manufacturers of these prosthetics).
Now while I’m of course thankful for the use of both my nature-given legs, being the techie that I am I couldn’t help but wonder when the technology in the prosthetic limbs would outperform nature’s own technology. After all, the pace of technological innovation is broad and all-encompassing. Wasn’t it just a matter of time before snapping on a lightweight and super-strong carbon fiber lower leg provided strength and agility surpassing that of a “traditional” leg? That is, if it didn’t already.
Anyway, the reason I was reminded of all this was because of Oscar Pistorius’ attempt to qualify for the Olympics. Now, he failed to qualify by less than a second, but he also uses two lower-leg prosthetics. An Olympic-level athlete with TWO lower-leg prosthetics - surely a sign of things to come.
Not that I can speak about it first-hand, but it seems there was a time when amputees were either pitied or looked upon as curiousities. Maybe we’re still in that time - I don’t know, I hope not. But I’d be willing to bet you that we’re not too far away from the days when athlete geeks gather ’round and instead of chatting about each others airfoil-shaped bike frames or dimpled, disc race wheels, they’re admiring the latest developments in limb “improvements” and asking who gave them the best price on that optional titanium knee replacement. Human performance? More like human sub-performance.
