Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius (born 22 November 1986) is a South African former professional sprinter. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old due to a congenital defect. He had his legs amputated halfway between his knees and ankles, and is the first double-leg amputeer to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. He is of Italian ethnicity with Afrikaans as a mother tongue and is also fluent in English. On 14 February 2013, Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, paralegal and model Reeva Steenkamp.
About Oscar Pistorius in brief
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius (born 22 November 1986) is a South African former professional sprinter. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old due to a congenital defect. Pistorius ran in both non-disabled sprint events and in sprint events for below-knee amputees. He was the tenth athlete to compete at both the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games. On 14 February 2013, Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, paralegal and model Reeva Steenkamp, in his Pretoria home. In July 2015, Judge Thokozile Masipa extended Pistorius’ sentence to six years. On appeal by the state for a longer prison sentence, the Supreme Court of Appeal increased the prison term to 13 years and five months. He is of Italian ethnicity with Afrikaans as a mother tongue and is also fluent in English. His mother, who died at the age of 43 when Pistorius was 15 years old, was a major influence in his life. He began studying for a Bachelor of Commerce with sports science at the University of Pretoria in 2006. In a June 2008 interview for his University’s website, he joked: ‘I had to cut down on my subjects Hopefully I’ll finish by the time I’m 30!’ Sometimes referred to as the Blade Runner, he is classified in T43.44.44 T43 T43. He has a son, Carl, and a younger sister, Aimée. 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. He also took part in club Olympic wrestling, and trained at Jannie Brooks’ garage gym in Pretoria. At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, he was the first amputee to win a non- disabled world track medal. He received a five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide and a concurrent three-year suspended sentence for a separate reckless endangerment conviction. In 2015, the case was presented to a panel at the Supreme court of Appeal of South Africa, which overturned the culpability homicide verdict and convicted him of murder. He currently lives in South Africa with his wife, Oscar, and their son, Oscar Jr, in the suburb of Bloemfontein in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The couple have a daughter, Oscar Jnr, who was born in 2008 and has a younger brother, Carl. He had his legs amputated halfway between his knees and ankles, and is the first double-leg amputeer to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, as well as competing in the 2008 Paralympics in the 400m and the 100m and 200m events. His first racing blades were fitted by South African prosthetist Francois van der Watt. As these quickly broke, Van der Watt referred Pistorius to American sprinter and Paralympian Brian Frasure to be fitted for blades by Icelandic company Össur.
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This page is based on the article Oscar Pistorius published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 14, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
