If there were ever a time to pose the question, “What’s your excuse”, this would be it!!! Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius will compete at the Olympic Games after he was named in both the individual 400m and the South Africa 4x400m relay squad for London 2012.
The four-time Paralympic Games gold medalist won a silver medal as part of South Africa’s 4x400m relay at the World Championships in Daegu last year, although he was left out of the line-up for the final.
He also looked set to be excluded from the individual event in London after failing to run the Olympic ‘A’ standard qualification mark twice in international competition.
But the South African selectors relaxed their qualification rules Wednesday and named him in both events, much to his delight.
“Today is truly one of the proudest days of my life. To have been selected to represent Team South Africa at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the individual 400m and the 4x400m relay is a real honor and I am so pleased that years of hard work, determination and sacrifice have all come together,” he told his official website.
“I have a phenomenal team behind me who have helped get me here and will now put everything we can into the final few weeks of preparations before the Olympic Games where I am aiming to race well, post good times and maybe even a personal best time on the biggest stage of them all.”
Pistorius, whose legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old due to a bone defect, runs on special carbon fiber blades from which his nickname “The Blade Runner” derives.
He will become the first Paralympian to compete in track and field at the able bodied Olympics.
The Johannesburg-born athlete is joined in the South Africa track and field team by Caster Semanya.
The 800m world champion was the subject of a gender test by the International Association of Athletics Federations following her victory in Berlin at the world championships three years ago, but has since been cleared to compete.
Posted by Ngo Okafor
The most downloaded black male model photo gallery and blog
