London 2012: Oscar Pistorius' Fairy Tale Run Will Continue in Olympics

South African track and field athlete Oscar Pistorius will represent his nation in the London Olympic Games in the men's 400m and 4x400m relay events. The 25-year-old isn't a gold medal contender, and in fact it would be nothing short of a miracle if Pistorius medaled at all.

That's not what makes the story of Oscar Pistorius so incredible, and so controversial.

You see, Oscar Pistorius is a double amputee, as a birth defect led to his being born without fibula bones in his legs, resulting in their amputation below the knee when Pistorius was 11 months old.

That hasn't stopped Pistorius from hitting the ground running (so-to-speak), and the athlete nicknamed "The Blade Runner" due to the composite prosthetics he wears while running is ready to test his mettle against the world's best "able-bodied" athletes in London after winning three gold medals at the last Paralympic Games.

That, unfortunately, is where the controversy comes in.

Pistorius was banned from the 2008 Beijing Games due to the fact that his prosthetics could give Pistorius an "unfair competitive advantage".

Over, you know, athletes with actual legs.

That banned was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but there are still those that believe that Pistorius has no part taking place in the London Games. Those detractors include 400m world-record holder Michael Johnson, who called Pistorius competing "unfair" in an interview with The London Daily Mail, and National Post scribe Joe O' Connor, who foresees the potential for competitive anarchy if athletes such as Pistorius are allowed to compete in the Games.

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Oscar Pistorius is an inspiration. He is also a miracle of science, and a barbarian at the Olympic gates. By handing him the keys we risk turning a 400m footrace into a technological arms race, risk reducing a competition between flesh and bone, into a conversation about the latest carbon-fibre gizmo. Risk an ending, and not a happy one, that nobody should want to see.

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With all due respect to Mr. O'Connor I hope he's not serious, because if he is then he needs to lay off the sc-fi movies for a while.

We're not talking about Steve Austin (not the wrestler, silly) rocketing around the track at 60 miles an hour in a hideous red tracksuit, and if technological advances reach that point 20 years from now it's a bridge that can be crossed when it's gotten to.

What we are talking about is a young man that has overcome incredible adversity to the extent that he was asked to represent his nation in one of the greatest sporting events on Earth, and how dare anyone try to take anything away from that achievement and honor.

For his part Pistorius just wishes the controversy would go away, as all he wants to do is get to the business of hitting the track in London, even if as he told The Daily Mail his personal goals in London are far from lofty.

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"A decent position in the semi-final," he said. 'I wasn't happy with my performance at the World Championships in Daegu. I had an unbelievable race in the heats, but misjudged the semi and finished last. This time I'll have to go flat-out from the start. I'd like to show people that if you put the hard work in and you believe in yourself, then you can do whatever you want to."

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Pistorius has already shown that and then some, and I for one will be cheering for the South African to exceed those goals, because his detractors aside the determination and courage that Oscar Pistorius has displayed en route to the London Games is what the Olympics are supposed to be about.

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