Disabled? Not by the clock

Oddly enough, the first question may be easier to answer: ‘‘I certainly see Oscar as having a legitimate shot at qualifying’’, said US sprinter Brian Frasure, speaking of 17-year-old Oscar Pistorious from South Africa.

No one — perhaps not even pistorius himself — is in a better position to assess the young athlete’s potential, and just how far he might go.

Not only did Pistorius, with a time of 21.97, shatter Frasure’s world record in the 200 metres on Tuesday, becoming the first amputee to run the distance in under 22 seconds. Frasure, a clinical prosthetist, designed and fitted the carbon-fibre ‘‘feet’’ — as athletes here often call their artificial legs — that Pistorius wore during the race.

Born with a congenital disorder that left him with forelegs but no feet, Oscar has only been competing for a very short time. ‘‘I started athletics in January’’, he said by phone after qualifying for the 100 metre final for leg amputees on Saturday. Frasure, as well as world record holder and paralympics star Marlon Shirley, will also be in the race.

‘‘I went from a time of 24.8 seconds in march to 21.97 at Athens’’ in the 200 metre dash, an improvement which Frasure described as ‘‘unheard of’’.

The current world record for that distance is 19.32 seconds, and bottom-bracket qualifying time for a South African sprinter going to the able-bodied Olympics would be 20.75 seconds. ‘‘I can go a lot further, my times should get a lot better’’, he added, pointing out that sprinters typically peak in their mid-to-late 20s.

Frasure is quick to dispel any notion that Pistorius’s high-tech, single-piece prosthetic limbs give him an artificial advantage over able-bodied athletes, pointing out that there is always a net loss of energy in using them.

The sprinting limbs, about the same width and twice the thickness of skis, resemble upside down question marks when worn. They have curved bottoms to approximate the motion of running on the balls of one’s feet.

As it is, Pistorius is only 43 hundredths of a second off the qualifying time for the 200 metres in the able-bodied Junior World Championships, for which he still qualifies.

But both he and Frasure agree that the greatest potential as a world-class sprinter is in the 400 metre event, which Pistorius has yet to run in international competition.

‘‘Oscar has a disadvantage coming out of the block’’ and thus loses time in shorter distances, explains Frasure, who is a single amputee.

But once he gets going, said Shirley, who hold the 100 metre world record, ‘‘his top end speed is ridiculous. I think he takes 49 steps coming down the 100 which is right up there with the guys in the olympics’’, he added.

If Pistorius does break through the barrier to qualifying times fast enough to give him a spot on his national team at the Olympics, he will almost certainly catch the international federations by surprise.

When asked if an athlete with a prosthetic leg could compete in the Games, an official from the IOC in Switzerland referred the question to the IAAF, based in Monaco.

‘‘There is no mention of prosthetics in the rules’’, an IAAF official said by telephone. ‘‘The case has never presented itself.’’