These pictures show how shockingly good bionics in sports are now

By Leslie Baehr From Business Insider

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images North America

Prosthetic limbs have been around for centuries, but the prosthetics of today don’t look like those from your grandfather’s day.

These days limbs can be bionic, almost seamlessly blending in with their wearer in form and function. Limbs can incorporate electronic components that allow the limb to respond to their wearers similar to a biological limb. They can be shaped for different purposes or customized to their wearer’s specifications.

It is enough of a task to make artificial legs that can walk naturally or arms that can grasp, but what happens when their wearer wants those limbs to be able to swim, climb, dance, or surf?

We sought out some of today’s most amazing athletes who are pushing the idea of what it means to mix the biological with the technological and take their sports to new limits.

Some people have become famous for taking prosthetics to the next level. In 1996, Aimee Mullins was the first amputee to compete on an NCAA track team, setting multiple world records. Phil Cole/Getty Images Sport Source: ABC

Running prosthetics, like the ones Mullins used and the ones seen below, take the shape of a cheetah leg. They have no heel and can store and release energy like a spring. But for other athletes, it is not always about putting one foot in front of the other …Mark Kolbe/Getty Images Source: The New York Times, The Atlantic

… at least not in the way you’d think. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Here, Amy Purdy of the U.S. Paralympic snowboard team changes out her everyday prosthetic legs for her snowboarding ones. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

While her snowboarding prosthetics are actually just adapted from ones for walking, she is able to adjust the ankle height and suspension. She also wears men’s size 11 because the larger size gives her more control over the board.

While her snowboarding prosthetics are actually just adapted from ones for walking, she is able to adjust the ankle height and suspension. She also wears men’s size 11 because the larger size gives her more control over the board.

Doug Pensinger/Getty Images North America Source: ESPN

For others, like Hugh Herr, losing a limb became a “call to arms” to develop new bionic technologies. Elise Amendola/AP Source: TED

Herr, a top climber who lost his legs to frostbite in the 1980s, realized his lower limbs were now a “blank slate” that could be specialized beyond biology. He built feet with spikes for ice climbing and very narrow ones that could fit in tiny cracks for rock climbing.

Screen Shot From Hugh Herr 2014 Ted Talk Source: TED, Business Insider

He is now head of the biomechatronics research group at the MIT Media Lab, which melds biology and design. REUTERS/Brian Snyder Source: MIT Media Lab, TED

Most recently, Herr and an MIT team built a new leg for ballroom dancer Adrianne Haslet-Davis, who lost part of her leg in the Boston Marathon bombing. Photo: Ryan Lash / Flickr Source: TED

After 200 days of studying dance, the team built a limb that could move dynamically with Haslet-Davis’ steps, applying varying force to the ground depending on the dance move. Photo: Ryan Lash / Flickr Source: TED

For other sports bionics designers, like Bob Radocy, it’s all in the hands. Rick Wilking/Reuters

Here, Radocy wears a specialized weight-lifting attachment from his high-performance prosthetics company, TRS Inc. Rick Wilking/Reuters Source: Reuters

Other attachments can be specially made to hold a basketball. Rick Wilking/Reuters

Or even to accommodate a golf club. Rick Wilking/Reuters

For other athletes, pushing the boundary of prosthetics means taking their new limb where their wearers were told it was never meant to go. Mike Coots Source: The Inertia

Surfer and photographer Mike Coots, who lost his right leg in a shark attack, had to figure out the ideal flexibility for his prosthetic ankle. Mike Coots Source: The Inertia

Too stiff and he wouldn’t be able to bend down when the wave went over him. Too flexible and he wouldn’t have enough control of the board on certain moves. Mike Coots Source: The Inertia

Just this July, Coots tried out a new foot designed especially for balancing by Ossur. He took this photo on his first day out with it, and it “felt really good!” he told Business Insider in an email. Mike Coots

Other aquatic athletes trade in their feet for fins.

Like Philippe Croizon, who lost his limbs in an electrocution accident. NADF

Source: Ability Magazine

And then swam across the English Channel, a swim of 13 1/2 hours. Philippe Croizon Source: Ability Magazine

Whether swimming, running, surfing, or dancing, the new bionics are making one thing inspiringly clear. “Nature is driving design — design is also driving nature,” Herr said in a TED talk. Mike Coots Photo: Mike Coots Source: TED

For more on this story go to: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-incredible-applications-of-bionics-in-sports-2014-7?op=1#ixzz3AKAA4AHu