Jul 052012
Congratulations to Oscar Pistorius, the first amputee to earn a spot on a national Olympic team. The South African runner has waged a long battle to get to this point and he’s sure to draw plenty of attention once the London Games begin. The sight of him competing at the Olympics will go a long way towards blurring the line between athletes with and without disabilities. He may not win any medals, but that’s probably beside the point. He will likely be this year’s most visible person with a disability.
My previous thoughts on Pistorius are here.
I think it’s awesome that Pistorius made it, however, he’s not the first amputee to make it onto a National Olympic Team (he’s not even the first South African amputee). He’s the first amputee track athlete. You got it more correct than the US Paralympic Org facebook page did originally, though. (They corrected their post which originally said that he was the first athlete ever to compete in both the Olympics and Paralympics; thereby managing to erase the 5 people -including 1 American- who’ve already competed in both). Yes, I’m a bit pedantic about this.
I would love to see continued blurring of the lines of athletes. He’s certainly been one of the most visible to do so. As I’ve looked into who else has done so, it’s interesting to see where they’ve competed. There have been 2 archers, 1 table tennis player, 1 swimmer (the other South African to have competed in both), and he now makes the 2nd runner. That’s only counting those who’ve been in both the Olympics and Paralympics. I’m not sure if there’s been any tracking of athletes with disabilities who’ve only participated in the Olympics, though. From what I’ve read around, it’s been much harder to integrate athletes with disabilities into the Olympics than other big sporting events, such as the Commonwealth Games.