Throughout the history of the amateur sporting events there has been a clear distinction made between the Olympics and Paralympic games. That is until a paralympian won his long battle to compete and will by making history by participating in this year’s London Olympics.
His name is Oscar Pistorius, also known as the Blade Runner. The first Paralympics took place in 1948 and has continued every 4 years from 1960 onwards.
When Oscar was born he did not have the fibula bone in either of his legs and had to get amputated from below his knees at 11 months. A couple of months later he received his prosthetic legs and was able to start walking at 17 months. As the years have gone by his dream of participating in the Olympics have been an uphill battle.
Pistorius uses J-shaped Flex-Foot Cheetahs, which was created by Ossur and has been used by amputee athletes since 1996. These carbon fiber devices and Pistorius’ hard work have allowed him to run a personable best of 45.07 seconds in the 400 metre event. Unfortunately, the International Association of Athletics Federations (I.A.A.F) passed a rule in 2007 that banned Pistorius from competing in the Olympics against able-bodied runners as the organization believed that the Flex-Foot legs gave him an unfair advantage. After the I.A.A.F. watched a video of a race Pistorius was in and then underwent test for the organization they concluded that the prosthetic legs gave him an advantage in the bouncing motion that they had off of the ground and that he used less oxygen and calories than his competitors.
The Blade Runner and his legal team appealed this decision and had it overturned due to the lack of evidence. In fact the Court of Arbitration believed he was at a disadvantage as he could not start as fast as the able-bodied competitors. With the new ruling the Blade Runner attempted to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics last month but missed the qualifying time by 0.22 seconds. This seemed to be the wall that would stop Pistorius from fulfilling his dream, but in a turn of events the South African Olympic Committee selected him to run in the 400 metre and 4X400 metre races.
Now that he is on the verge of competing against able-bodied runners in the 2012 Olympics the Blade Runner could help make this one of the most memorable sporting events in recent memory. Until then, enjoy the preview of Oscar running below.
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