All my sympathies go to the double amputee, that doesn't however rebut the fact that running with artificial limbs is a different discipline from running with natural limbs. It's comparing apples and oranges. He has to call upon different musculature, balance, timing, and on and on.

This is a problem similar to the problem dealt with in horse racing which is handled by classifying and handicapping. I'm not sure how this is handled at the paralympics, but I'm sure it's a problem there as well. Because of the coincidence of the calendar and the benefit of superior coaching I found myself in school classrooms as a 9 year old with boys up to 2 years older than myself. No one bothered to tell me that I could not be expected to compete with classmates that much older than myself, so I decided at an early age that I wasn't cut out for athletics. Maybe I was right, but I sure would like to have taken a shot at it. This was only the beginning of my life experiences with the damage done by unfair comarisons. Hence my interest.

For once I agree whole-heartedly with Saletan. The fact that someone running with bionic assistance presently is achieving times comparable to those of olympic athletes is irrelevant, to Olympic competition that is. As I said over the unfair criticism of Mrs Obama's thesis writing at the age of 21, (if she's reporting her age correctly), "the wonder is not that she is writing her thesis well but that she is writing a thesis at the age of 21 at all."

Same here, the wonder is not that he is beating olympic level atheletes but that he is able to run so well at all, but it is a different discipline. Soon with mechanical and engineering modifications we can expect that he will be beating the times of the fastest athletes. If Ben Johnson's times in the 100 metres were struck down, for his biochemical engineering assistance, so should this guy's times for his mechanical assistance.