Oscar Pistorius Makes Olympic Team

South African double amputee Oscar Pistorius will compete in the individual 400 meters and the 4x400-meter relay at the London Olympics. He runs on specially-designed carbon-fiber prosthetics called Cheetahs. In 2008, Pistorius won a court battle to compete for an Olympic spot. However, he then failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

Some scientists are not convinced that Pistorius’s current J-shaped blades don’t give him an advantage. One argument is that because the blades are so much lighter than a human leg, Pistorius can turn over, or reposition, his prosthetic legs unnaturally fast.

Since he was cleared to run against able-bodied athletes by the court in May 2008, Pistorius has made it his mission to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics in the same year. He failed to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but won three golds at the Paralympics in Beijing — to add to the gold and bronze he won at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens. He has qualified for the London Paralympics in the 100, 200, 400 and 4x100 relay with his times at last year’s world championships.

According to his country’s qualifying standards, he needed to run at least 45.30 seconds twice in international competition this year to make the Olympic team in the individual 400 meters. He met the qualifying mark last year and again in March, but was unable to run it a second time in 2012.

Yet as the South Africa Olympic committee announced its track team for the Games on Wednesday, Pistorius was included.

Pistorius will be the first amputee to compete in track at the Olympics, although amputees have competed in other sports. Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Flickr user Elvar Freyr)