Oscar Pistorious: The Six Million Dollar Man?

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

After years of training, double-amputee Oscar Pistorious achieved his dream this week, when South Africa's athletics federation selected him for the country's team in the track and field world championships. Pistorious — who was born without fibulae, or calf bone — achieved an Olympic qualifying time of 45.07 seconds for the 400-meter dash last month. But not everybody is rooting for him to succeed. Some critics are saying that Pistorious's prosthetic legs have unfairly boosted his performance in time trials.

Hugh Herr, associate professor and director of the Biomechatronics Group at MIT’s Media Lab, set the record straight.

Guests:

Hugh Herr

Produced by:

Hsi-Chang Lin

Leave a Comment

Register for your own account so you can vote on comments, save your favorites, and more. Learn more.
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. We reserve the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting. By leaving a comment, you agree to New York Public Radio's Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use.