Oscar Pistorius is a South African double-leg amputee and world record holder (100m, 200m, and 400m sprints) who is competing today at the Visa Paralympic World Cup in Manchester, UK. The thing is, he wants to compete in the Beijing Olympics. But the International Amateur Athletics Association won't let him. Bah!Run, Oscar, run!
Just think, it would be like not letting Sarah Reinertsen turn pro and compete if she got fast enough to be competitive at the Ironman World Championships in Kona.
Update:
He won his 100m in 11.64. (Current world record in open competition is 9.79).
He won his 200m in 23.17. (Current world record in open competition is 19.32).
Can't find the 400m results yet. . . .
Update 2: Here's a more detailed article on Oscar from the NY Times. "A cold, rainy afternoon [at the Paralympic World Cup] tempered his performances, but his victories came decisively and kept him aimed toward his goal of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, even though international track officials seek to block his entrance. Since March, Pistorius has delivered startling record performances for disabled athletes at 100 meters (10.91 seconds), 200 meters (21.58 seconds) and 400 meters (46.34 seconds). Those times do not meet Olympic qualifying standards for men, but the Beijing Games are still 15 months away. Already, Pistorius is fast enough that his marks would have won gold medals in equivalent women’s races at the 2004 Athens Olympics."
Run, Oscar, run!
3 comments:
What an amazing story. I particularly like this line:
Trevor Brauckmann, Pistorius's prosthetics expert, is incensed: "If Oscar wins a race, he is accused of having an unfair advantage, but if he runs against able-bodied athletes and loses, people ask what he is trying to prove.
How irritating would that be?
I guess that unless someone is trying to say that having both legs amputated is somehow an advantage in running races, they should consider letting him attend the tryouts. Or at least provide a reasonable explanation on why he can't.
yeah, his prosthesis' are an unfair advantage. that's what I heard too.
so that means that if we let this guy run and he wins then all the premier athletes will be running out to get double amputations so they can get the same advantage right?
sheesh.
I think that somewhere someone is worried that if he does win at the regular olympics then instead of people being in awe that this guy is an olympic athlete (I'm in awe of any olympic athlete no matter what their sport) that people might think that the olympics isn't "real" anymore because even a "handicapped person" can win/place it.
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