Oscar Pistorius

Oscar’s popularity soon made him the face of leading companies of the world such as ‘Nike’ and ‘Oakley’. He even endorsed a perfume called ‘A

Men’, which is a product of the firm ‘Thierry Mugler’.

The year 2008 saw the release of an Italian version of the athlete’s biography titled ‘Dream Runner’, another version in English reached the public the following year.

Oscar Pistorius is the second of three children of his parents, Sheila Pistorius and Henke. He was born on the 22nd of November, 1986 in the Transvaal province of South Africa.

The toddler faced a major challenge when he was diagnosed with a medical condition known as ‘Fibular Hemimelia’. Both his legs had to be amputated due to this syndrome which is rarely seen in infants.

The boy then completed his education by studying at institutions at ‘Constantia Kloof Primary School’ and ‘Pretoria Boys High School’. He even played rugby while studying at ‘Pretoria Boys’. He even tried wrestling, water Polo and tennis during this time.

Oscar continued pursuing rugby until 2003, when he hurt himself severely during one of the games, due to which he was forced to stop playing the sport.

During early 2004, Pistorius happened to meet a coach named Ampie Louw and a prosthetist named Francois Van Der Watt. The two men encouraged Pistorius to try running.

Van der Watt even helped Oscar get customized running blades which suit him the best, thus, started his career as a runner.

The same year, he participated in the ‘2004 Summer Paralympics’ event, in which he achieved a remarkable feat of securing the 3rd position in the 100 metre running event.

Pistorius returned to studies in 2006, when he started pursuing a degree in Business Management from the ‘University of Pretoria’.

2005 was an eventful year in Oscar’s career as a runner. He participated in the ‘Paralympic World Cup’ as well as the able-bodied ‘South African Championships’ this year.

This athlete was honoured with the ‘BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award’ in 2007.

Oscar was one among the 100 individuals who secured a spot in the ‘100 Most Influential People in the World’ list of ‘Time’ magazine.

In 2012, Pistorius was honoured with a ‘Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson of the Year With a Disability’, for his dedication towards running. He was also supposed to be one of the recipients of the ‘Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award’, but didn’t fetch it due to unforeseen reasons.