Pistorius, Oscar (1986-…), a South African athlete, was the first amputee track athlete to qualify for the Summer Olympic Games. He competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Pistorius ran with carbon fiber artificial limbs that end with blades for feet. The design earned him the nickname “Blade Runner.” Using the limbs, Pistorius set world records in the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter events in the Paralympic Games, an international competition for athletes with disabilities.
Oscar Carl Lennard Pistorius was born on Nov. 22, 1986, in Johannesburg. Pistorius was born without the fibula bone in both of his legs. At the age of 11 months, he had both of his legs amputated below the knee. He learned to walk on artificial legs and became an athletic youth. In school, he played rugby, water polo, and tennis.
Pistorius began competing in track events in 2004. In 2007, he competed in his first international track meet against athletes without disabilities. However, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body for track and field, banned him from such competitions. The IAAF, later known as World Athletics, said Pistorius’s artificial limbs gave him an unfair advantage over athletes without disabilities. Pistorius challenged the ban before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The CAS is an independent international organization based in Lausanne, Switzerland, that was established in 1984 to help settle disputes in sports. The CAS ruled in Pistorius’s favor. Although he was then eligible for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Pistorius was not selected to compete for South Africa because his qualifying times were not fast enough.
Pistorius did compete against runners without disabilities in the 2011 world track and field championships. He participated in the 400-meter race and the 4 by 400-meter (4×400-meter) relay. This type of relay race is divided into 400-meter segments, each run by one of the four members of the relay team. The total length of the race is 1,600 meters. Pistorius was eliminated in the semifinal of the 400-meter individual race, finishing last. However, he was part of South Africa’s relay team that won a silver medal at the championships. He thus became the first amputee to win a medal in a world track meet not geared specifically for people with disabilities. Pistorius received the medal even though he was not selected to run in the finals.
At the 2012 Olympic Games, Pistorius reached the second semifinals in the 400-meter individual race. He also ran the final leg (segment) of the 4×400-meter relay race, with the South Africans finishing eighth out of nine teams in the finals.
In 2013, Pistorius was charged with the murder of his girlfriend, South African model Reeva Steenkamp, in his house. Pistorius admitted to firing the gun that killed Steenkamp but claimed that he believed he was firing at an intruder and denied that he deliberately tried to kill her. A judge convicted Pistorius in 2014 of “culpable homicide,” a charge in South African law that means unintentionally but unlawfully killing a person. He was initially sentenced to five years in prison. In 2015, an appeals court overturned the lower court’s conviction of Pistorius on the charge of culpable homicide. However, the appeals court convicted Pistorius of the more serious charge of murder. Pistorius ultimately received a prison sentence of about 15 years. He was granted parole in late 2023 and released from prison in January 2024.
