Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius is ineligible to compete in the Beijing Olympics because his prosthetic racing legs give him a clear competitive advantage, the International Association of Athletics Federations ruled Monday.
The IAAF had twice postponed the ruling, but the executive council said the South African runner's curved, prosthetic Cheetah blades were considered a technical aid in violation of the rules.
"As a result, Oscar Pistorius is ineligible to compete in competitions organized under IAAF rules," the IAAF said in a statement from Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Pistorius, known as the "blade runner," announced last week that he planned to appeal any adverse decision, including taking the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
"The natural feeling from our side would be to appeal the verdict and see what avenues we can take forward," the runner's agent, Peet van Zyl, told the BBC after Monday's verdict. "Oscar wants to prove that he isn't getting an advantage."
The decision was reached in an e-mail vote by the 27-member IAAF Council. The vote count was not disclosed but believed to be unanimous.
The IAAF endorsed studies by German Prof. Gert-Peter Brueggemann, who conducted tests on the prosthetic limbs and said they give Pistorius a clear competitive advantage over able-bodied runners.
"An athlete using this prosthetic blade has a demonstrable mechanical advantage [more than 30 per cent] when compared to someone not using the blade," the IAAF said.
The federation said Pistorius had been allowed to compete in some able-bodied events until now because his case was so unique that such artificial protheses had not been properly studied.
"We did not have the science," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said. "Now we have the science. We are only interested in competitions that we govern."
Davies stressed the findings only covered Pistorius's specific blades and did not necessarily mean that all lesser abled athletes would automatically be excluded.
The ruling does not affect Pistorius's eligibility for Paralympic events, in which he was a gold medallist in Athens in 2004. It remained unclear to what extent he would be able to continue running in local races in South Africa.
Underwent testing
Pistorius worked with Brueggemann in Cologne for two days of testing in November to learn to what extent the j-shaped carbon-fibre extensions to his amputated legs differed from the legs of fully abled runners.
Brueggemann found Pistorius was able to run at the same speed as able-bodied runners on about a quarter less energy. He found that once the runners hit a certain stride, athletes with artificial limbs needed less additional energy than other athletes.
The professor found that the returned energy "from the prosthetic blade is close to three times higher than with the human ankle joint in maximum sprinting."
Based on these findings, the council ruled against Pistorius.
The findings are contested by the Pistorius camp.
"Based on the feedback that we got, the general feeling was that there were a lot of variables that weren't taken into consideration and that all avenues hadn't been explored in terms of coming to a final conclusion on whether Oscar was getting some advantage or not," Van Zyl said. "We were hoping that they would reconsider and hopefully do some more tests."
The IAAF adopted a rule last summer prohibiting the use of any "technical aids" deemed to give an athlete an advantage over another.
Needs to qualify
Pistorius has set world records in the 100, 200 and 400 in Paralympic events. To make the Olympics in Beijing, Pistorius would still need to qualify for the South African team and make the qualifying times.
Pistorius was born without fibulas — the long, thin outer bone between the knee and ankle — and was 11 months old when his legs were amputated below the knee.
He began running competitively four years ago to treat a rugby injury, and nine months later won the 200 metres at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens.
Pistorius competed in the 400 at two international-level able-bodied meets in 2007. He finished second in a B race in 46.90 seconds at the Golden League meet in Rome on July 13 and, two days later, was disqualified for running out of his lane in Sheffield, England.
