Athlete Oscar Pistorius, a 21-year-old from South Africa, has been ruled ineligible to compete in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on the grounds of an unfair mechanical advantage. Pistorius lost both his legs when he was 11 and now runs on a pair of carbon-fiber Flex Foot Cheetahs, also known as running blades. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) says that the use of the Cheetah blades allows Pistorius to consume less energy while sprinting, based on a study performed by Professor Peter Bruggemann on Pistorius and six other able-bodied athletes.