Olympic amputee? Injured runner? CU prof’s got your number
Peter Weyand, right, assistant professor in kinesiology at Rice University, observes double-amputee Oscar Pistorius during test at the university’s Locomotion Laboratory. (Photo: Rice University and Jeff Fitlow)
Athletes ranging from average joggers recovering from injury and a double-amputee vying to be an Olympic sprinter have a friend in the running business: Rodger Kram, an associate professor of integrative physiology.
Oscar Pistorius, a South African sprinter and bilateral amputee, had hoped to compete in the Beijing Olympics. In January, the International Association of Athletics Federations banned Pistorius from competing with able-bodied runners. The IAAF cited one study’s conclusion that Pistorius’ springy prostheses conferred an unfair advantage.
In February, a renowned team of experts that included Kram and Rice University kinesiologist Peter Weyand tested Pistorius at Rice’s Locomotion Laboratory. “The blades do not confer an enhanced ability to hold speed over a 400-meter race," Weyand told the Rice News staff.
Kram concurred: “The study commissioned by the IAAF claimed that Pistorius has a 25-percent energetic advantage at 400m race speeds. That claim is specious because anaerobic energy supply cannot be quantified.”
Weyand and Kram laid the groundwork for a successful appeal of the IAAF decision. Though he competed in the Olympic trials, however, Pistorius did not make the team. He came in fourth, and his time was seven-tenths of a second slower than the Olympic qualification time.
But in September, Pistorius won gold in the 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter sprints in the Beijing Paralympic Games.
Meanwhile, Kram’s work has touched other runners. He co-authored a study quantifying the therapeutic effects of a low-gravity rehabilitative device used by runners since 2006.
Known as the "G-Trainer," the machine comprises a treadmill surrounded by an inflatable plastic chamber that encases the lower body of the runner, effectively reducing runners’ weight.
Published in the August issue of the Journal of Applied Biomechanics, the study was co-authored by former CU-Boulder doctoral student Alena Grabowski, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kram’s results were based in part on the study of Olympians such as CU alumna Kara Goucher, who placed ninth in the 5,000-meter run and 10th in the 10,000-meter run in Beijing. Goucher, who placed third in this year’s New York City Marathon, has used the device for rehabilitation.
– With reporting by Rice University News and CU News Services