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He has an angelic smile, an Apollo body and steel thighs. With his eternal boy’s face, this athlete, made of flesh and carbon fiber, has never been like the others: he has always run without legs. Born without fibula and amputated below the knees at the age of 11 months, Oscar Pistorius has never ceased to want to challenge, with the grace of his fine prostheses, the greatest sprinters on the planet.
The South African rose to prominence at the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games, winning the 200 meters and finishing third in the 100 meters in the category reserved for single-leg amputees. At 17, “Blade Runner”, her nickname, has no time to waste. He endorses the Olympic motto: “ Citius, altius, fortius ”. He announces his desire to participate in the Beijing Games, in 2008, with the… valid: always ” faster, higher, stronger “.
But the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) does not share the same enthusiasm as Oscar Pistorius. She wonders if her spring-like prosthetics don’t give her an advantage over her opponents. For the governing body, it is yes: the blades would restore 30% more energy than the foot of a valid runner. “Even though he behaves like a man who does not have a disability, we were forced to check his artificial legs”, had justified Lamine Diack, its president.
The South African does not let it go and seizes the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which proves him right. For the international body, the IAAF has not provided formal proof that the “Artificial legs” in carbon produce energy. The athlete will however fail for 70 hundredths to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. At the Paralympic Games, he won the 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters.
“The fastest thing without legs”
Its story amazes the public and Oscar Pistorius, charismatic and handsome, quickly becomes a media attraction. Sponsors are jostling to “sign” the new icon of world sport which raises millions of dollars.
The South African is also crazy about the lap times: at his debut in 2004, he ran the 400 meters in just under 50 seconds, seven years later, his record is 45”07. A time that allows him to qualify for the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, in 2011, with the able-bodied. He made it to the semi-finals of the 400 meters and won the silver medal in the 4 x 400 meters.
Oscar Pistorius, who presents himself as “The fastest thing without legs “, has not given up on his dream of one day participating in the able-bodied Olympic Games. And in extremis, his federation selected him to defend the colors of South Africa in London in 2012. The consecration.
Oscar Pistorius marks a little more the history of his discipline even if he is not the first disabled athlete to compete in the Olympics. He finished last in the 400-meter semi-final, and won two more gold medals at the Paralympic Games. But the essential is elsewhere: the sprinter has become a symbol of resilience. And not only…
His “cyborg” side, half-athlete, half-robot, pushes scientists to ask themselves a metaphysical question: “Is man finite or infinite?” “, as noted by Christophe Brissonneau, sociologist of sport. In a century, human beings have reached 99% of their physical capacities. Only technology can help push the boundaries of athletic performance even further, explained Jean-François Toussaint, director of the Biomedical Research Institute of Sports Epidemiology (Irmes), who philosophizes: “But man is not frozen in a mathematical calculation: he evolves, he grows. “.
But the champion’s golden destiny will suddenly take another turn. On February 14, 2013, in Pretoria, Oscar Pistorius killed with four bullets, on this Valentine’s night, his 29-year-old companion, Reeva Steenkamp, who had locked herself in the toilet. The athlete pleads confusion, swearing that a burglar had entered his property and fired in panic.
A long legal soap opera follows, a succession of trials and twists and turns that will hold tabloids around the world in suspense. Oscar Pistorius was initially sentenced to five years in prison for ” manslaughter “, before the facts are reclassified as “Murder” by the Supreme Court. At the bar, the fallen athlete tries to play the card of emotion, removing his prostheses and walking head down in tears, on his stumps. In November 2017, at the age of 31, the six-time Paralympic champion was finally sentenced to thirteen years in prison.
Summary of our series “These Africans who made the Olympics”