Oscar Pistorius, the fastest man on no legs.

Today he holds world records in the 100m, 200m and 400m events, but three years ago Oscar Pistorius had never stepped onto a track. He's just as fast as any olympic athlete, but this 20-yrar old southafrican is a duble amputee... "At birth he was missing bones below the knee. After his legs were removed, at the age of one, he learnt to walk on prosthetics, and he believes this pushed him to excel.


On the track, they call him "blade runner" - thanks to his carbon fibre prosthetics, custom-made in Iceland.
He and his blades, called Cheetahs, have run into sporting history, and into controversy.
He has been dogged by claims that the blades give him an extra long stride - something he denies.
The manufacturers, Ossur, say the blades are "passive devices", which lag way behind what biological legs can do.
They insist the Cheetahs are not performance-enhancing, but simply give amputee athletes a fighting chance.
Winning ingredient
Oscar says he is the winning ingredient, not the blades." This is a part of the article published by bbc.co.uk (to see the entire article, check http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6589763.stm) last april 24th.





Basically, the whole thing was about whether allowing him or not to participate in Beijing olympics.





Today papers around the world announce he'll be able to run in the olympics, because the "Court of arbitration for sport" (CAS) reconsidered the decission taken by the IAAF ("International Asociation of Athletics Federation") in order to prohibit his participation in the Games, because his "blades" would be an advantage against the other athletes.





When i first heard of it all, I thought that they made the right decission. In terms of justice - at least -, it sounds - at least - fair that an athlete in different conditions doesm't participate with the others. If you can prove all of that, certainly, it's the right decission to make.





In the other hand, ¿is he in different conditions? He has to "shave one second" of his personal best time for 400m is 46.34 seconds, and he needs no more than 45 seconds to be able to bo to Beijing. ONLY ONE SECOND!!! I know a little about athletics, and I know that one second means the world for many athletes, but this helps us to think that he may not be in a very different condition than the rest of the athletes.



I truly admire people like Oscar Pistorius... they see their goals and chase them no matter what. I admire him, and wish him the best: may your olympic dreams come true! =)

And to everyone who has a dream of the size of an olympic one... just DON'T GIVE UP! This video shows Africa, and something most of us aren't used to... so DON'T GIVE UP!