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The Disabled Athlete “Does” have an Unfair Advantage Essay

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The article, "The Disabled Athlete has an Unfair Advantage," by Amby Burfoot, is a poorly written, research deficient article, in need of accurate, unbiased supporting facts. The article is written about Oscar Pistorius a double below knee amputee that competed but failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, after a lengthy court case. (Robinson) This unsatisfactorily written article has merit to the opinion, however, the author sounded as if he was a first time writer for a school newspaper. The facts used in the paper seem as if they were researched by asking someone who knows, someone who knows someone who is an amputee. Writing with this apparent ignorance, and recklessness can only lead to a larger divide between the two sides of …show more content…

Mr. Pistorius trained hard to get to the point he is at currently. When Jesse Owens set a long jump world record 26 feet, 8 inches in 1935, he was wearing the a shoe concurrent with the times; and when Mike Powell, in 1991 leapt 29.4 ft he was wearing modern light weight synthetic component shoes. (Encyclopedia Britannica) Using Mr. Burfoot's logic Mike Powell did not need to train he just had better equipment, and by default if any other athlete in any sport gets any equipment that could improve performance they will not need to train to compete at a higher level, its the equipment. The amount of athletic skill and intense training it takes for someone with below the knee amputations, to get to a level where you can walk is more than Mr. Burfoot could ever imagine. Learning to run is another category altogether. He shows his lack of knowledge most with the low quality of the writing and with a lackluster approach to a controversial subject. The writing and tone of this article give the impression of an uninformed bigot tap-dancing around a controversial subject trying not to get dirty. He starts early in the article with, “I know I'd be smart to ignore the bait and leave this subject alone, but;" this line alone says, "this is a controversial subject, but I am going give you what I think, no apologies." Mr. Burfoot then goes to explain about how Mr. Pistorius was granted the right to compete, and

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