Why can't disabled athletes compete at the Olympics? | Alena Grabowski | TEDxMileHigh

NOTE FROM TED: This talk discusses work that has been part of an ongoing debate among experts working in the field. For more information, see the paper below and related commentary.

The case study referenced in this talk can be found here: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/do...

Commentary from other researchers can be found here:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/do...

Have you ever wondered why disabled athletes aren’t allowed to compete at the Olympics? Many people worry that prosthetics give athletes an unfair advantage – but is that true? Researcher Dr. Alena Grabowski sets out to answer this question with the help of Blake Leeper, an eight-time Paralympic Track and Field medalist. Together, they test maximum speed, acceleration out of the starting blocks, biomechanics, effort required to run, and rate of fatigue. Their results might surprise you!

Dr. Alena Grabowski directs the Applied Biomechanics Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology. She is a Research Healthcare Scientist with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Denver. She studies how devices like prostheses and exoskeletons affect walking, running, sprinting, cycling, and jumping in people with and without physical disabilities like leg amputations. Her passion for trail running and skiing in the Colorado mountains inspires her research. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx