Oscar Pistorius
Who was Oscar Pistorius?
Double-amputee sprinter known as the 'Blade Runner' who competed in both Paralympic and Olympic Games on carbon fiber prosthetics. He was convicted in 2014 of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Oscar Pistorius (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius was born on November 22, 1986, in Sandton, South Africa. He had a congenital defect that left him without fibulas and some outer bones in both feet, which led to the amputation of his legs below the knee when he was 11 months old. He grew up in Pretoria and went to Pretoria Boys High School, where he got interested in sports like rugby and water polo. After a knee injury in 2003, he switched to athletics. He later studied at the University of Pretoria and the University of Strathclyde.
Before Fame
Oscar Pistorius grew up in Pretoria, South Africa, during a time of major social and political changes after apartheid. Despite having both legs amputated below the knee, he was raised in an environment that encouraged physical activity and competition. At Pretoria Boys High School, he participated in various contact and water sports until a knee injury in 2003 led him to focus solely on track sprinting. Initially, his prosthetic devices were quite simple, but once he started training with carbon fiber blade prosthetics under coach Ampie Louw, his athletic potential became clear.
Key Achievements
- First double-leg amputee to compete in the Olympic Games, at the 2012 London Olympics
- First amputee to win a medal at a non-disabled World Athletics Championship (2011, Daegu)
- Multiple Paralympic gold medals in sprint events at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Games
- Successfully overturned the IAAF's ban on his Olympic participation through the Court of Arbitration for Sport
- Recipient of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award (2007) and the Bronze Order of Ikhamanga (2006)
Did You Know?
- 01.Pistorius's legs were amputated when he was only 11 months old, meaning he learned to walk exclusively on prosthetics from infancy.
- 02.His Cheetah Flex-Foot carbon fiber prosthetics were manufactured by the Icelandic company Ossur and cost approximately $15,000 per pair.
- 03.He was the 10th athlete in history to compete at both the Paralympic Games and the Olympic Games.
- 04.His 2011 World Championships silver medal in the 4x400 metre relay made him the first amputee to win any medal in a non-disabled world track competition.
- 05.Reeva Steenkamp was shot on Valentine's Day, 14 February 2013, a detail that drew intense international media attention to the case.
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award | 2007 | — |
| Bronze Order of Ikhamanga | 2006 | — |