What everyone does agree on is that you would be hard pushed to find a nicer guy or better ambassador for his sport. Pistorius is known for telling children that his legs were bitten off by a big shark, or that they fell off because he didn't eat his greens — depending on whether their parents are around — and he believes it is his responsibility to educate people positively about disability. He is heavily involved in the Mineseeker Foundation, which supplies prosthetic limbs to the victims of landmines in Mozambique.
Pistorius was born in in Johannesburg to Sheila and Henke, who works in dolomite mining. After the amputation, Oscar was given a set of fibreglass legs and within six months he was taking his first faltering steps. He was a natural sportsman, playing rugby, tennis and water polo to a high level, but life away from games was less happy. His parents split when he was six and, when he was 15, his mother, to whom he was particularly close, died.
His progress has never been exactly straightforward though. There remains considerable scientific doubt over whether his crescent-shaped legs give him an unfair advantage; one report, in the Journal of Applied Physiology in , claimed that the Cheetahs might provide him with as much as a second boost over m. The legs have also caused him to be detained and handcuffed at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam in , when police suspected him of being a terrorist.
Worst of all, he was involved in a boat accident on the Vaal river in South Africa in that left him with a broken jaw, crushed cheekbone and stitches patching his face together. It was this last incident, however, that may be responsible for Pistorius's recent dramatic upturn in form. Having been convinced he was going to die, he now decided to lose weight, spend less time on his Yamaha superbike and not be "that crazy kid I was when I was growing up" though he has kept the pair of pet white tigers named after underworld gods.
He focused more than ever on his preparation. Rooney, who has raced and beaten Pistorius twice, most recently this month, agrees that there has been a dramatic change. A picture came up on his computer from Beijing and I said, 'You were a fat git back then'," Rooney says. But now he's lean, he's built like an athlete. He's come a long way and he's coming to his peak. Last week a billboard went up in Times Square, New York.
Davidson, Terence. Date: Rights: No known rights restrictions other than copyright. Abstract: On the 4th of August South African runner Oscar Pistorius became the first athlete to compete at the Olympic Games while running on prosthetic limbs. Pistorius is a double below the knee amputee who runs on carbon J-shaped fibre blades. He represents a fusion of humanity and technology that will become an increasingly pressing issue for the sporting arena in the coming years.
In this essay I use Pistorius as a case study to investigate how decisions regarding the use of enhancement technologies in sport should be made. I argue that the key characteristic that should be assessed is whether Pistorius' prosthetic legs mean that he is competing in a different sport to able-bodied athletes when he runs.
It's a crucial question for his quality of life while behind bars — Pistorius has been a double-amputee since early childhood, and the twin prostheses he wears as a result allow him to walk, move and live like anybody else. He's so skilled and swift on them, as you may recall, that he won Olympic gold in And given the reputation of where he's headed to, the infamous Kgosi Mapuru II prison formerly known as Pretoria Central Prison , whether or not he'll be allowed to use them is a pivotal question.
It goes without saying that Pistorius is much more vulnerable to harm when unable to wear his prosthetic legs, and Kgosi Mapuru II is reportedly a very brutal penitentiary. The answer, sad to say, is not entirely clear. Luckily for Pistorius, it is possible that he'll be allowed to maintain his prosthetic legs, and that would certainly be good news for him.
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