Tech doping: The controversy surrounding performance comparisons between athletes with high-tech prostheses and able-bodied athletes

The year 2012 was a landmark year for competitive sport for people with disabilities. The largest Paralympic Games to date attracted the highest level of global media attention ever recorded. Top athlete Oscar Pistorius had already called for the right to compete against able-bodied athletes in 2008, and in 2012 he became the first double-leg amputee to compete at the Summer Olympics in London. In the summer of 2014, Markus Rehm, an athlete with a below-knee amputation, won the long jump title at the German Athletics Championships, beating his able-bodied competitors. This event reignited the debate surrounding the ‘Pistorius case’ and brought the question of an advantage over able-bodied athletes to the forefront of competitive sport for people with disabilities.