298 RüdigerKunow
addressing PWDs are essentially "coming out stories," or what I have
herecallednarrativesofappearancewhich"exposewhatpreviouslywas
hidden, privatized, medicalized" in order to create a new, essentially
cultural,presenceforPWDs(Garland-Thomson,"IntegratingDisability"
347; E. Samuels, "My Body" 233-35). This cultural format, they argue,
by "revealingorexplainingone's disabilityto others" (E.Samuels,"My
Body" 239), not only actively contests stigma, but also creates a new
space, a clean slate, as it were, in which a disabled person can create a
differentidentityforhim-orherself.
Disability sports is a useful area to look into for such coming-out
narratives, also because it brings into play a number of problem areas
crucial for the argument unfolded here. First and foremost, the
controversy over the question whether disabled athletes are unlike, like,
or even better than "normal" athletes reminds us that disability—
whatever may be meant by that term—is a controversial and contingent
category.Secondly,disabilitysportsencouragesreflectionabouttherole
of new technologies in enhancing or impeding cultural equality and
social participation, in sports but also beyond it. I will return to these
new technologies and their promise of enhancing the physical body, if
notlifeitself,inaseparatebookchapter("SomaticsandSemantics").
At this point it is enough to bring to mind that in recent years, new
technologies have worked to enhance the physical performance of
disabled athletes. An iconic example of this process and also its
ambivalencesisstarathleteOscarPistorius,recentlyfallenfromgracein
the context of a murder investigation. Amputated below his knee on
both legs when he was a baby, Pistorius, with the help of two hi-tech
racing blades, became an extremely successful track athlete who has
won several gold medals and set world records at the Paralympics. The
"BladeRunner" wasalso thefirstdisabled person to compete with non-
disabled athletes at track races at the 2012 London Olympics. Even
thoughhedidnotwin,hisoutstandingperformancemadehimaninstant
celebrity and a showcase example of the "supercrip" idea that people
with non-normative bodies could even become "better than normal."
However, his very success in normalizing the non-normative came to
haunt Pistorius. He runs on J-shaped carbon-fiber blades and it was
charged that this prosthetic device, beyond just amending a physical
disability, actually gave him an unfair advantage over "normal," able-
bodied competitors. The controversy even involved the international