Inclusion Daily Express

May 16, 2008

Two South African athletes will make Olympic history

By Dave 20 Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express

MILAN, ITALY & SEVILLE, SPAIN - After more than a year in legal battles, Paralympic champion sprinter Oscar "Blade Runner" Pistorius has won the chance to compete for the Beijing Olympics.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled unanimously Friday that the 21-year-old South African can try out to qualify for the Summer Games in August.

The CAS overturned a January 14 decision by the International Association of Athletics Federations, which governs track and field competition for the Olympics. The IAAF had said that the carbon fiber prosthetic legs Pistorius uses give him an unfair advantage over other runners.

The CAS said the IAAF had failed to prove its point.

"I am ecstatic," Pistorius told reporters in Milan.

Pistorius was born without one of the long bones in each of his lower legs, so surgeons amputated both legs below the knees before he turned one year of age. For much of his life, he has used prosthetic legs.

For running, he uses curved "Cheetah" blades that the IAAF said gave him a "demonstrable mechanical advantage (more than 30 percent) when compared to someone not using the blade." The federation said it based its decision on a report from German researcher Gert-Peter Brueggemann who last summer studied Pistorius' prosthetic legs and determined that they allowed him to maintain the same speed as other runners, but by using much less energy.

Pistorius set a world record in the 200-meter event during the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. Since then, he has competed alongside athletes without disabilities in several international events.

The ruling does not mean he would automatically compete in the Olympics. Instead, it gives him the opportunity to qualify along with runners that do not have disabilities.

Another South African athlete, marathon swimmer Natalie du Toit, qualified Tuesday for the Open Water Swimming events in the Beijing Olympics.

Du Toit, 24, lost her left leg in an accident when she was 14 years old.

She finished fourth in the 10 kilometer (6.6 mile) swim in Seville, Spain on Saturday.

"I burst into tears at the end and one of the referees came over to ask me if I was all right," Du Toit said.