

Technological developments within elite sports for disabled athletes raise intriguing philosophical questions that challenge dominant notions of the body and of normality. The case of ‘bladerunner Oscar Pistorius’ in particular is used to illustrate and defend ‘transhuman’ ideologies, in which the use of technology is promoted to extend all human capabilities. Some argue that new technologies will undermine the sharp contrast that still dominates between the athlete as a cultural hero and icon and the disabled person that needs extra attention or care; the one incorporating the peak of normality, human functioning at its best, the other often representing the opposite. Do current ways of classification do justice to the performances of disabled athletes? The case of Oscar Pistorius will be used to further illustrate the complexities of these questions, in particular when related to notions of normality and extraordinary performances. Pistorius' wish to become part of ‘normal’ elite sport may be framed as a way of ‘inclusion’ or ‘integration’, but at the same time reproduces new inequalities and asymmetries between performances of able and dis-abled athletes. Accepting Pistorius to compete within the ‘regular’ Olympic Games paradoxically underlines the differences and reproduces the current order and hierarchy between able and disabled bodies.