Running into obsolescence: Paralympic prosthetics and the Cybathlon alternative

• Prosthetic limb design used at events like the Paralympic Games has remained relatively stagnant for approximately three decades. • The technology used in such contests risks obsolescence by not reflecting such technologies that will be increasingly seen in everyday society and physical activity. • Newer competitive events like the Cybathlon offer a progressive approach to sports assistive technologies. The role of prosthetic technology in elite sport with a disability remains contested, positioned uneasily between narratives of fairness, enhancement and empowerment. The paper argues that the Paralympic Games model is rooted in technological conservatism, treating technologies such as prosthetics as a threat to fairness and regulating them as only partially corrective tools rather than as a true restoration of abilities. By contrast, the Cybathlon embraces performance enhancing assistive technologies as integral to athletic performance and everyday life, designing competition tasks around real-world challenges. Through this comparison, the paper demonstrates that the Paralympics’ restrictive ethos to prosthetic limbs rules risks its obsolescence when the prosthetics currently used will no longer reflect that of everyday practice or society. In contrast, the Cybathlon reflects a progressive approach that celebrates a human–machine hybridity. This paper offers a conceptual commentary that introduces ‘technological obsolescence’ as a consideration for understanding Para Sport regulation and equipment-based performance enhancement.