South African sporting legend Oscar Pistorius, the man known as the Blade Runner, celebrated becoming the newest member of the Laureus Friends & Ambassadors programme, by announcing his goal is to compete in both the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
A brilliant Paralympic sprinter, Pistorius, 23, a double amputee who runs with the aid of carbon fibre artificial lower legs, has been breaking down barriers between disabled and able-bodied sport, famously winning a court case in 2008 which allowed him to compete in top level able-bodied sport.
In the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, he won gold medals at 100 metres, 200 metres and 400 metres in the T44 category, but failed to reach the qualifying time for the 400 metres in the Olympic Games.
Pistorius, speaking in Manchester where he is competing in the 2010 Paralympic World Cup, said: “This is a very special day for me. I am honoured to become a member of the Laureus Family. I know what it is to struggle to achieve something against the odds and there is nothing more important for successful sportsmen and women than to help young people who may have the cards stacked against them in life.
“2012 is a really big goal for me. Coming to London for the Paralympic and Olympic Games would be a dream that I’ve been chasing for the last five years. In 2008 I was a quarter of a second away from qualifying for the Olympics, but this time I’m sure that’s going to happen.
“I’m still quite young, so I think with the experience I need to gain over the next two years, whether it be to rest in a better fashion or diet better or train smarter, these are all things that are going to help me bring my time down, so I’m pretty confident I will be able to make the London 2012 qualification times. I’ll definitely be pushing for it,” he added.
Pistorius will be going for the 400 metres in the 2012 Olympics, as he feels he has more chance of reaching the qualifying time in that distance rather than his stronger Paralympic events, the 100 and 200 metres. He said: “So I will be going for the 400 metres at the able-bodied Olympics, plus four events at the Paralympics – the 100, 200 and 400 metres and the relay.”
Welcoming Pistorius as a Laureus Friend & Ambassador, Edwin Moses, Chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, said: “I am delighted to be able to welcome Oscar as one of our Laureus ambassadors. He is a very passionate competitor and as we all know a fighter for what he believes in. We are very lucky that in addition to pursuing his highly successful career he also wants to devote his energy and commitment to Laureus. I know he will be an energetic worker for the causes that the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation supports.”
Pistorius was born with congenital absence of the fibula in both legs. When he was 11-months-old, his legs were amputated halfway between his knees and ankles. A sports fanatic, between the ages of 11 and 13, he played rugby union, tennis, water polo and wrestling. He was introduced to running in January 2004 and began to make an immediate impact in the Paralympic world, coming first in the 200 metres and third in the 100 metres in the Athens Paralympic Games that year. In the 2005 Paralympic World Cup he won gold in the 100 and 200 metres and the following year at the Paralympic World Championships he won gold in 100, 200 and 400 metres.
Pistorius made a historic sporting breakthrough in 2007 when he competed in two non-disabled races. On July 13, he ran in the 400 metres at Rome’s Golden Gala and finished second with a time of 46.90 secs behind Stefano Braciola’s time of 46.72 secs. Two days later at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix in Sheffield he finished seventh in 47.65 secs.
He said then his goal was to compete in the Olympic Games. However, his artificial lower legs, while enabling him to compete, generated claims that he had an unfair advantage over able-bodied runners. The same year, the International Association of Athletics Federations amended its competition rules to ban the use of a ‘technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete.’ The IAAF ruled him ineligible for competition, including the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
However Pistorius appealed and the decision was reversed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in May 2008, the court ruling that the IAAF had not provided sufficient evidence to prove that Pistorius’s prostheses give him an advantage over able-bodied athletes.
Although eligible to compete in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Pistorius did not qualify for the South African team. Despite achieving third place and a personal best of 46.25 seconds in the 400 metres in Lucerne in July, this was short of the Olympic qualification time.
In 2006, Pistorius was conferred with the Order of Ikhamanga in bronze by the President of South Africa for outstanding sporting achievement. In December 2007 he was presented with the BBC Helen Rollason Award which is conferred for outstanding courage and achievement in the face of adversity. And in 2008 he was nominated for the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award.
