"Ever seen the TV commercial where everyone was wearing these things?"

Great ad...

I think part of the IOC's reason was that he had to 'put them on'... i.e. take his prosthetic legs off in order to put his 'running' ones on. That was where he apparently had the advantage over the supposedly more able-bodied runners.

They had something along the same lines in Winter Sports a number of years ago, where the entire Dutch Speed Skating team attached retractable blades to their skates, which knocked several seconds off lap-times. There was up-roar, but they were eventually allowed....., and now they're all at it....

B.