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Oscar Pistorius: Athlete, Activist, Fastest Man on No Legs

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Oscar Pistorius: Athlete, Activist, Fastest Man on No Legs Discussion Starter OSCAR PISTORIUS ‐ Oscar Pistorius v the IAAF ‘We are not disabled by our disabilities but abled by our abilities’‐ Oscar Pistorius South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius is also competing against, and beating, many already a multiple world record holder elite able‐bodied runners in races such as the and Paralympic gold medallist in the 2007 South African Championships (which he 100m, 200m and 400m Paralympic won) and the Golden Gala in Rome. events. Clearly, he has already achieved many victories in his young life. Recently Pistorius was clocking a running time that was he added another great and memorable moving him closer and closer to the Beijing victory to his record sheet, but this time Olympics qualification time. Having no legs it was a win in a courtroom, not on a couldn’t stop him from chasing his Olympic running track. dream: instead, it was the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) that would prove the only hurdle that would block his way. THE LEGAL CASE : Pistorius v the IAAF Having seen Pistorius edge ever closer to Olympic 200m qualification time, the IAAF banned Pistorius from competition, citing the BACKGROUND competitive advantage gained from use of his prosthetics, or ‘cheeta’s’. Oscar Pistorius was born with a congenital disorder, which required the amputation of However, the IAAF had no evidence upon the lower part of both legs at the age of 11 which to base the ban, and subsequently, months. Despite having no lower legs, Oscar accusations of discrimination were levelled went on to establish a successful sports career against them, particularly as they had also at school and university, playing rugby, water vocalised controversial beliefs such as this: “It polo and tennis. He started running track affects the purity of sport. Next will be another during rehabilitative work for a rugby injury, device where people can fly with something on and quickly realised that he had a special their back.” (Elio Locatelli, Director of talent for the sport. Development, IAAF). Subsequently, the IAAF announced that they would be happy to Pistorius went on to dominate the Paralympic conduct research to back up their claims. podium in the 100m, 200m and 400m events, HLST Learning Legacies: Discussion Starter – February 2010 1 Discussion Starter OSCAR PISTORIUS ‐ Oscar Pistorius v the IAAF THE RESEARCH Committee delayed finalizing their Olympic delegation to allow Pistorius a chance to The research was carried out at the German qualify, the sprinter fell short of the 45.95‐ Sport University in Cologne (Institute of second Olympic qualifying mark for the 400m. Biomechanics and Orthopaedics). The IAAF His personal best time of 46.25s, achieved in stated that test conclusions proved that Oscar Lucerne on July 16, was still not fast enough to had an unfair advantage. Subsequently, the get him on the start list for the 4 X 400m Relay IAAF upheld their ban, stating that Oscar’s team for South Africa. It is unknown as to prosthetics directly contravened their 2007 whether he would have achieved this time regulatory ruling, which prohibited without the court case hanging over his head; technological aids on the competitive field (on however, he did run proudly in the the basis that springs, wheels or other such Paralympics and whitewashed the medal devices gave athletes with a disability an table, yet again. unfair advantage over athletes competing with their natural legs). Pistorius immediately appealed the decision, taking his fight to The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The CAS agreed with Oscar, overturning the IAAF regulation. Whilst the debate continues to rage amongst some sectors of the sports world, it is nevertheless clear that legally, Oscar is free to run in the It will remain to be seen whether Oscar will Olympics if he achieves the qualification time, qualify for the London 2012 Games. Whilst and that the many disadvantages of using this is yet unclear, one thing we can observe is prothestics might far outweigh any benefits in that he raised the profile of disabled and existence Paralympic sport is a meaningful way, and redefined and challenged our CONSEQUENCES OF THE LEGAL BATTLE conceptualisation of what ‘able bodied’ really means. Having faced a barrage of testing, media FIND OUT MORE scrutiny and stress over the run‐up to the IAAF Website Games, Pistorius had not been able to http://www.iaaf.org maintain the training schedule that might Paralympic Games website have allowed him to achieve qualification http://www.paralympic.org time. Although the South African Olympic Ossur (creators of Oscar’s prosthetics) http://www.ossur.com, HLST Learning Legacies: Discussion Starter – February 2010 2.
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