Oscar Pistorius

Miscellaneous

Popular As Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius

Birthday November 22, 1986

Birth Sign Sagittarius

Birthplace Johannesburg, South Africa

Age 37 years old

Nationality South Africa

Height 1.60 m (without prosthesis)

Weight 80.6 kg (without prosthesis) (2007)

#1418 Most Popular

1986

Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius (, ; born 22 November 1986) is a South African former professional sprinter and convicted murderer.

Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old as a result of a congenital defect; he was born missing the outside of both feet and both fibulae.

Pistorius ran in both nondisabled sprint events and in sprint events for below-knee amputees.

Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius was born to Henke and Sheila Pistorius on 22 November 1986 in Sandton, Johannesburg, in what was then Transvaal Province (now Gauteng Province) of South Africa.

He grew up in a Christian home and has an elder brother, Carl, and a younger sister, Aimée.

Pistorius credits his mother, who died at the age of 43 when Pistorius was 15 years old, as a major influence in his life.

Pistorius is from an Afrikaner family with partial Italian ancestry from his maternal great-grandfather, who was an Italian emigrant to Kenya.

Afrikaans is his mother tongue and he is also fluent in English.

Pistorius was born with fibular hemimelia (congenital absence of the fibula) in both legs.

When he was 11 months old, both of his legs were amputated halfway between his knees and ankles.

He attended Constantia Kloof Primary School and Pretoria Boys High School, where he played rugby union in the school's third XV team.

He played water polo and tennis at provincial level between the ages of 11 and 13.

In addition, Pistorius took part in club Olympic wrestling, and trained at Jannie Brooks's garage gym in Pretoria.

Brooks remarked that it took six months before he noticed that Pistorius "had no legs", but nonetheless was able to do many exercises, including "boxing, skipping, and doing press-ups".

2003

After a serious rugby knee injury in June 2003, Pistorius was introduced to running in January 2004 while undergoing rehabilitation at the University of Pretoria's High Performance Centre with coach Ampie Louw, and "never looked back".

His first racing blades were fitted by South African prosthetist Francois van der Watt.

Because he was unable to find suitable running blades in Pretoria, Van der Watt ordered the pair to be made by a local engineer.

However, as these quickly broke, Van der Watt referred Pistorius to American prosthetist and Paralympic sprinter Brian Frasure to be fitted for blades by Icelandic company Össur.

2004

Sometimes referred to as the "Blade Runner" (after the science fiction film of the same name) and "the fastest man on no legs", Pistorius took part in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens and came third overall in the T44 100-metre event.

Despite falling in the preliminary round for the 200 metres, he qualified for the final.

He went on to win the final in a world record time of 21.97 seconds, beating a pair of American runners, Marlon Shirley and Brian Frasure, both with single amputations.

2005

In 2005, Pistorius finished sixth in the nondisabled South African Championships over 400 metres with a world-record time of 47.34 seconds, and at the Paralympic World Cup in the same year, he won gold in the 100 metres and 200 metres, beating his previous 200-metre world record.

2006

Pistorius began studying for a bachelor of commerce (B.Com.) in business management with sports science at the University of Pretoria in 2006.

2008

In a June 2008 interview for his University's website, he joked: "I won't graduate soon. With all the training I have had to cut down on my subjects. Hopefully I'll finish by the time I'm 30!"

Asked by a journalist for his "sporting motto", he said: "You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have."

Pistorius competed in T44 (single below-knee amputees) events though he is classified in T43 (double below-knee amputee).

2010

He was the 10th athlete to compete at both the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games.

After becoming a Paralympic champion, Pistorius attempted to enter nondisabled international competitions, over persistent objections by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and arguments that his artificial limbs gave an unfair advantage.

Pistorius prevailed in this legal dispute.

2011

At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Pistorius was the first amputee to win a nondisabled world track medal.

2012

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Pistorius was the first double-leg amputee participant.

2013

On 14 February 2013, Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, paralegal and model Reeva Steenkamp, in his Pretoria home.

He claimed he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder hiding in the bathroom.

He was arrested and charged with murder.

At his trial the following year, Pistorius was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of culpable homicide.

2014

He received a five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide and a concurrent three-year suspended sentence for a separate reckless endangerment conviction both in October 2014.

2015

Pistorius was temporarily released on house arrest in October 2015 while the case was presented on appeal to a panel at the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, which overturned the culpable homicide verdict and convicted him of murder.

2016

In July 2016, Judge Thokozile Masipa extended Pistorius's sentence to six years.

On appeal by the state for a longer prison sentence, the Supreme Court of Appeal increased the prison term to a total of 15 years.

Pistorius was released on parole on 5 January 2024.