Photo from Elvar at via Flickr
ON 22ND NOVEMBER 1986, Oscar Pistorius was born to Henke and Sheila Pistorius. This would have been a fairly ordinary affair except that Oscar Pistorius was born with a rare deformity of the legs - his feet contains only two toes, the heel bone and a bone to connect the toes and the heel together.
Henke and Sheila Pistorius made the heartwrenching decision to amputate Oscar's legs below the knee.
The surgeon would attach his heel bones to his knees so that they would form stumps for Oscar to move around.
It would not be surprising if Oscar grew up lacking self esteem and perhaps even stay away from sports.
However from young, Henke and Sheila Pistorius knew their son was different. Said Henke: "He was running all the time! He never walked. It was as if he couldn't walk."
Oscar is very close to his brother Carl, and he wants to do all kind of activities with his brother. Activities that were considered unthinkable by most disabled - like wakeboarding.
Carl Pistorius said: "Oscar never allowed his disability to hold him back from anything. In fact he is more adventurous than most of my friends."
Mastering WakeBoarding
During that wakeboarding trip they had, Oscar couldn't get up on his first few attempts. His prosthetic limbs were not flexible enough to allow him to stand up on the board. Normal people would have given up, but not Oscar.
With sheer determination and an extremely competitive nature, he finally mastered wake boarding.
Vicky Miles, his girlfriend said:" Oscar is extremely competitive. He hates losing. And i don't think he ever placed any limit on himself."
Oscar did not like Athletics Initially...
Until the age of 16, there were no signs that Oscar was going to be a dominant force in Athletics.
Ironically, as Oscar would say, he would try all sports when he can except Athletics, and his favorite sport was Rugby.
His stint in Rugby would be short-lived by a fateful tackle that seriously injured his knee. That however opened his road to Athletics.
Oscar was told by his team mates and coach that if he were to regain fitness for the coming Rugby season, he would have to take up Athletics.
He would test out a new type of carbon fiber prosthetic legs created by Ossur for his athletic endeavors. And from then on, there was no looking back.
2004 Paralympics Games In Athens
Barely eight months after starting athletics, Oscar Pistorius would announce his arrival in dramatic fashion...well almost.
He would represent South Africa in the Paralympics Games in Athens in the 100, 200 and 400m event.
Oscar's first event was the 200m, and he would be flanked by two renowned champions in the Paralympics 200m heats, Marlon Shirley and Brian Frasure. In his own words,Oscar was very scared at the start of the race. In addition, four false starts certainly did not help to ease his nerves.
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