IMAGE CAPTION: Blake Leeper, who was born without legs, takes a break from testing at CU Boulder听in 2018.听 This week, an international court ruled he cannot compete in the Tokyo Olympics because his prostheses make him too tall. CU Boulder researchers say the ruling is unfounded.听Credit: Glenn Asakawa
This week鈥檚 international court ruling barring a Black double-amputee sprinter from the Olympics overlooks evidence that his prostheses provide no competitive advantage and instead hinges on racially biased data, according to CU Boulder researchers at the center of the debate.
鈥淥ur studies found that Blake Leeper鈥檚 prostheses do not provide him with a competitive advantage compared to nonamputees, and there is no data to suggest that his height allows him to run faster,鈥� said Alena Grabowski, an associate professor of integrative physiology who specializes in the study of running prostheses.
Grabowski added that the court鈥檚 surprising decision, ,听was informed by studies including only white听and Asian athletes.
鈥淲e believe this is a discriminatory听and unorthodox ruling,鈥� Grabowski said.
The new 鈥榖lade runner鈥�
In August 2018, Leeper, an elite sprinter from Kingsport, Tennessee, visited Grabowski鈥檚 Applied Biomechanics Lab for a series of tests aimed at answering one key question: Does a double-amputee running on carbon fiber blades have an advantage or disadvantage over sprinters with biological legs?
That summer, Leeper had sprinted the 400-meter in 44.42 seconds, breaking the record of famed "blade runner" Oscar Pistorius, who in 2012 became the first below-the-knee amputee to compete against able-bodied runners at the Olympic games.
Olympic hopeful Blake Leeper sprints around the track at Balch Fieldhouse in 2018.
Blake Leeper, left and Alena Grabowski, right at Balch Fieldhouse in 2018.
鈥淔or kids who had an amputation and for adults who had some sort of physical disability 鈥� to be able to see Pistorius push the boundaries like that, it really opened a door,鈥� said Grabowski, whose research determined Pistorius did not have a competitive advantage鈥攁s some had alleged鈥攁nd helped gain him entry to the Olympic games.
After Pistorius鈥櫶齢istory-making run, the International Association of Athletics Federations (now known as World Athletics) ruled that, going forward, athletes using such "mechanical aids"听must take it upon themselves to prove their blades do not give them a competitive edge.
With his eye on the Olympics and his times putting him within reach, Leeper鈥攚ho was born without legs鈥攅nlisted Grabowski鈥檚 help.
He flew to Boulder for a series of grueling experiments, assessing his physiology and biomechanics while bursting out of the starting blocks, running at maximum speed, handling curves and sprinting to exhaustion.
The research team then compared his performance, physiology and biomechanics to those of more than 30 nonamputee elite runners and submitted the results to the world's top sports court,听the Court of Arbitration for听Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Their findings, summarized in the CAS鈥檚 110-page decision Wednesday, concluded that, compared to nonamputees: Leeper does not accelerate faster at the start, achieve faster maximum sprint velocities, run around a curve as fast, run faster at maximum aerobic capacity or exhibit superior sprinting endurance. In fact, Grabowski noted, his prostheses render him at a significant disadvantage bursting out of the blocks and rounding curves.
鈥淲e performed more tests, collected more data and made more comparisons than those performed for Oscar Pistorius, and our testing methods and results were reviewed and approved by the same eminent scientists,鈥� Grabowski wrote. 鈥淚f this rigorous scientific evidence is not found to be sufficient 鈥hen we are unable to envision that any person with an amputation will ever be permitted to compete against non-amputee athletes in elite running competitions.鈥�
On Monday, it had partially ruled in Leeper鈥檚 favor, determining that the rule requiring athletes to bear the burden of proof that they do not have an unfair advantage is 鈥渦nlawful and invalid.鈥� Going forward, that burden will rest on World Athletics.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 good news,鈥� said Grabowski, who provided the testing for Leeper at no cost. 鈥淔or an athlete to have to take this on themselves is an immense and expensive task.鈥�
But in the same ruling, the court determined that Leeper himself could not compete in any World Athletics-sanctioned events, including the Olympics, because his prostheses enable him to run at a height that is 鈥渟everal inches taller than his maximum possible height if he had intact biological legs.鈥�
Grabowski鈥檚 team was stunned.
鈥淲e presented a lot of measurements and data to support the fact that running prostheses do not provide an unfair advantage, and the main points of our scientific report were accepted by the Court of Arbitration for听Sport. So it was really surprising to see that, on the other hand, they accepted the idea that 鈥榯all prostheses鈥� provide an advantage, with no data,鈥� said Paolo Taboga, an assistant professor of kinesiology at California State University who worked on the Leeper study in Grabowski鈥檚 lab.
What the science says
The researchers contest the ruling on two grounds.
First, in a study published in the journal PLOS ONE in February, they found that height makes no difference when it comes to maximum sprinting speed.鈥淲e find that while you do take longer steps, you also cycle your legs slower so in the end, the two even out,鈥� said Taboga.
Second, Grabowski noted, the Paralympic Committee鈥檚 Maximum Allowable Standing Height (MASH) rule, upon which the court based its decision, stems from just two studies that included no Black study subjects.
鈥淭hese studies, designed to determine how tall a person would be with biological legs, are based on a subset of the population and do not include people of African descent whose proportions are very likely different,鈥� said Grabowski.
In order to compete in the Tokyo games under the rule, Leeper would have to modify his prostheses to make him approximately 6 inches shorter.
鈥淵ou can only imagine how difficult that would be for a runner,鈥� said Grabowski.
Grabowski said she intends to publish the full results of her study with Leeper in a peer-reviewed journal later this year.
Leeper, now 31, and his legal team plan to fight the decision in civil court.
鈥淚 will never give up and will continue to do all I can to compete and be judged by standards that are nondiscriminatory in every way,鈥� said Leeper.
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