Four years ago Oscar Pistorius was not allowed to join the running competition of the Olympic Games 2008. His prostheses were judged as bionic legs- performing better than “normal legs”-so he would have had an advantage with respects to his competitors. The decision was later rectified: he was allowed to compete for the qualifications, but didn’t qualify for it, so in the end he participated to the Paralympic Games, and won three gold medals.
Oscar Pistorius, Source: Wikipedia
The story of Pistorius made news – but is the “Pistorius case” an isolated case, or is this story only the tip of an iceberg? One must consider all the new materials and technologies that can “help” athletes perform better. Isn’t technology part of any sport, in same way or another? And if so, where do we draw the line between what is “fair” and “unfair”?
As the Olympic Games 2012 approach next summer, we already have news of athletes signing up for a new type of swimsuit that promises the lowest possible level of fabric drag, and we can expect to see new shoes, new running suits, even new sunglasses worn by athletes that look great but, most importantly, perform great. In the last decades innovative technologies have been abundantly used to design and produce better-performing sport gear, and as new products were brought out, the fine line between what constitutes “fair” and “unfair” gear started to shake. One example for all: a full body swimsuit was banned by the sport governing body, FINA, since it was made of materials that aided “speed, buoyancy or endurance”. Now nanotechnology is opening the doors to a new set of possibilities, something even more sophisticated: textiles with embedded sensors, shoes that can track and monitor the athlete’s performance, skin patches that can monitor physiological parameters. Although many of these devices are still in the lab, is it very possible that they will become a reality in the near future. And when they do, we will have to deal with a new set of questions of “fairness”, such as – If an athlete wears a skin patch that changes colour when his dehydration level has become critical, does he have an unfair advantage?
The Olympic Games
It is often stated that nanotechnology is an enabling technology, but what if it enables transforming the Olympic Games in an arena where athletes win based on the sensor activity embedded in their clothes; based on the type of shirts, swimsuits, pants and shoes they wear; ultimately, based on how much technology an athlete can afford to pay.
During the Olympic Games humans challenge themselves to discern who can jump higher; run faster; concentrate better. One of the reasons that they do it, is that the audience is there to see outstanding performance and records broken, this is what makes sports so popular. It is no surprise thus that when this competition comes along, we find ourselves facing social and ethical questions, trying to set the (already shaky) line between what is acceptable and what is not in sports, ultimately trying to define what leads to “better performance” and what leads to “human enhancement”. We know that nanomaterials are already studied in medicine to restore lost or damaged functions, such as nanomaterials for bone regeneration or neuron regeneration; what if those treatments are used to enhance the human body? Scientists for instance are developing miniaturised brain devices to control the tremor of patients affected by neurological disease. What if similar devices were used to strengthen the concentration of athletes competing in shooting sports? Or imagine this: an athlete has an accident and shatters a bone and is healed with a bone treatment that makes him/her “better than before”, for instance with a bone replacement that is stronger than normal bone. Should these athletes be disqualified from participating in the Olympic Games? Should they participate in the Paralympic games?
Ultimately, the Olympic Games might become a quest of access to the best technology and most innovative medical treatments, to bring humans beyond their limits. In some ways, this is already happening. Nanotechnology could take this to another level, making it very hard to distinguish between a “natural performance” and an “enhanced performance”.
