Saturday's Hero

The whole family has been sick with the dreaded lurgie, Riley has spent the week moving from one surface to another in the quest to find a cooler spot to sleep in and I was in bed for most of five days. We are well again and I'm going to write about a guy I was going to write about a week ago, Oscar Pistorius.

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Oscar Pistorius is a 25 year old South African, he was born without fibula bones in either leg and had his lower legs amputated at an early age, learning to walk on prosthetics at that time. His nickname is Blade Runner. He claims that he does not see himself as having a disability, just a different set of feet. He runs the 400 metre qualifier on Saturday. If he qualifies he will also run in the 400 metre relay.

In South Africa he failed to qualify for the team, yet the officials included him anyway. In London his prosthetics have been called into question. Some people are claiming they will give him an unfair advantage.


In 2007 he competed in his first ‘able bodied’ athletics competition, soon after that the  International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) changed their competition rules to ban the use of  "any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device". Apparently this was not aimed at Pistorius. Scientists monitored his performances and conducted tests, concluding that he had considerable advantages over athletes without prosthetic limbs. He was banned from able bodied athletic competitions. This decision was overturned in May 2008, and he missed qualifying for the Beijing Olympics by .7 of a second


He did compete in the Beijing 2008 Para Olympics and won gold in the 100, 200 and 400 metres.


My point is that here is a guy who does not have ankles or feet wanting to compete against those that do and the authorities have in the past banned him. Seriously? In my mind this guy is a hero. As if what he is running on was a choice that he made? I really hope that he makes the qualifier and then wins gold. Pistorius is a tremendous role model for disabled people, he is living proof that disabled people do not have to be marginalised, that there can be a fairy tale ending.


By the way, he does NOT like the name Blade Runner, make sure you complain to your TV provider when they call him that.