Disadvantage

Sport is a funny thing (someone had to christen our new blog with a cliché, OK?). It’s all right for Jason Giambi, a proven steroid freak, to play first base for the Yankees, but it’s not OK for Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee, to compete in Olympic track and field events. Why? Because his hook-shaped prosthetic legs—made of carbon fiber—give him an unfair “mechanical advantage.”

That’s what the International Association of Athletics Federations (whatever that is) decided in January. Thankfully, the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned that ridiculous judgment today, ruling that the 21-year-old South African is eligible to race against able-bodied athletes. “I am ecstatic,” Pistorius told reporters in Milan, Italy. “When I found out, I cried. It is a battle that has been going on for far too long. It’s a great day for sport. I think this day is going to go down in history for the equality of disabled people.”

It’s the right decision for one simple reason: none of his fellow sprinters would ever wish to have the same “advantage.” Hope to see you in Beijing, Mr. Pistorius…