ESPN Examines Prosthetics, Athletics

The prosthetic-enhanced athlete will be able to run faster, jump higher, and pitch harder than mere mortals&this brave new world is just around the corner and the cover story for an April issue of ESPN The Magazine, which hit newsstands April 23. From an idea lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to a prosthetic design company in Iceland to amputees who see no limits to what their bodies can attain with prosthetics, ESPN The Magazine's Eric Adelson, in "Let 'em Play", takes readers into the lives of athletes who represent the future of sports and prosthetics, and demonstrates that new ideas and technology will change the way we think about what is possible for the human body to achieve.

"In many ways, we are facing the advent of the bionic man," says Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber. "It's something that our industry has to start thinking about."

Bioethicist Andy Miah predicts: "I suspect it will become an imperative and the responsible course of action to reinforce one's body through prosthesis when competing at an elite level."

This issue showcases split covers featuring Iraq War veteran Jerrod Fields of Chula Vista, California, who uses a lower-limb prosthesis to play basketball, and Anthony Burruto of Orlando, Florida, a bilateral amputee who excells on the baseball field.