Despite the fact that the participant of the Olympic Games in London Oscar Pistorius was not considered a real contender for victory, the audience watched with interest the starts of this runner. The reason for this attention is that the South African sprinter became the first Paralympic athlete in the world with prostheses to compete in the Olympics alongside healthy athletes.
Oscar Pistorius was born in 1986 in Johannesburg. The boy had a congenital defect - the absence of both fibular bones. Doctors insisted on amputation of both legs below the knee, and they advised to do this as early as possible in order to speed up the child's adaptation. The parents of the future champion agreed to the operation when Pistorius was only 11 months old, and at the age of 13 months he was already wearing special prostheses.
Oscar attended a regular school for boys, where he was actively involved in sports. Despite the physical ailment, he was fond of rugby, tennis, running, water polo, wrestling. Having suffered a knee injury at school competitions, Pistorius had to abandon some sports disciplines, in particular, from his beloved rugby.
The coach drew attention to the fact that the young man shows amazing results in sprint races, and advised him to focus on this sport. The first major international start for Pistorius was the Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004. There, the athlete won two awards: a bronze medal in the 100-meter race and a gold medal in the 200-meter race. However, the athlete was not going to stop there. Starting to compete for ordinary runners, Pistorius showed unprecedented results: at the Rome tournament in 2007, he won silver in the 400 meters.
It would seem that a series of successful starts in competitions for ordinary runners foreshadowed Oscar Pistorius a brilliant sports career, but in 2008 the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) decided to remove the athlete from participating in tournaments not intended for persons with disabilities. Her decision was based on research that lightweight and springy prostheses gave Pistorius an edge over regular runners.
For running, the athlete uses Icelandic specialists' Cheetah Flex-Foot prostheses, which cost more than $ 30,000. Thanks to them, Pistorius got the nickname "Blade Runner". These prostheses are made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, which is a durable but very lightweight material. Despite some of the benefits they provide to the runner, prostheses also make it difficult to compete, making it difficult to corner and slowing down the start. These arguments helped Pistorius challenge the IAAF's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The athlete was unable to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, however he took part in the 2008 Paralympic Games. These competitions brought Pistorius 3 gold medals and a Paralympic record at a distance of 400 meters. Continuing intensive training, the athlete strove to fulfill his cherished dream - to compete at the Summer Olympics. 2011 was marked by another victory for Oscar Pistorius: he became the world's first amputee Paralympian who managed to run a distance of 400 meters in less than 46 seconds.
The personal record set by the athlete in the small Italian town of Lignano (45, 07 seconds at the 400-meter) allowed him to qualify for the 2011 World Athletics Championships and the London Olympics. Having performed at the World Championship in the semifinals of the 4x400 m relay with the South African national team, Pistorius became its silver medalist.
The main event of 2012 for the athlete was performance at the Olympic Games. In the individual competition, Oscar Pistorius was unable to make it to the final races, but he was lucky enough to take part in the final of the men's 4x400m relay as part of the national team of his country. Oscar got the final fourth stage. Following the results of the relay, the South African team took eighth place. Despite his unsuccessful performance at the 2012 Olympics, Oscar Pistorius proved by personal example that a physical disability should not be an obstacle to fulfilling a dream.
