"Blade Runner" wins right to compete

I have blogged about the amazing South African runner here before. A double amputee, he runs with carbide fiber prosthetic legs.

The International Association of Athletics Federations had ruled that these specialized prosthetics gave Oscar an unfair advantage against non-disabled runners. That ruling has now been reversed in arbitration, but it sounds like he is a second off for qualification.

Oscar has won an important battle for the disabled. He may not make it to China in 2008, but he can keep working his "arse" off to try, and he can dream of making it like thousands of other almost Olympians around the world.

Being disabled is not for sissies. We work our butts off to attain as much independence as we can. We work our butts off to compete with a non-disabled world in whatever we do, and we push beyond that to do a better job to compensate for areas where our disabilities might get in the way. How about the pain we endure, the humiliation when we fail, the victories that we have that the world never sees and would never understand?

A "glass ceiling", an attitude...I don't know what you call it. People smile at us and say we are an inspiration. But, we are really not supposed to compete, are we? Shouldn't we just stay in our corner and be an "inspiration"?

Why can't the non-disabled world step into our world and imagine how it feels like to no be taken serious?

Oscar, don't give up man....I want to see your "arse" up on that podium this summer!