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Who will follow in Pistorius’ footsteps?
RIO DE JANEIRO: Oscar Pistorius is gone and so far there’s been no replacement for the first athlete to compete in both the Paralympics and Olympics. But it’s probably
RIO DE JANEIRO: Oscar Pistorius is gone and so far there’s been no replacement for the first athlete to compete in both the Paralympics and Olympics. But it’s probably only a matter of time.
Disgraced after his conviction in the murder of his girlfriend in South Africa, Pistorius is absent in every sense from the Rio Paralympics. New Zealander Liam Malone even smashed his 200m record on Monday, running on a similar set of carbon-fiber blades to those that “blade runner” Pistorius made so famous.
But with athletes pushing at the boundaries of what is disabled sport and what is able-bodied sport, Pistorius’ revolution certainly hasn’t gone away.
The current leader in the race to become the second person ever to shift between the Paralympics and Olympics is German long jumper Markus Rehm.
Rehm, who has one leg and wears a blade on the other, has a personal best distance of 8.4m, which would have beaten the 8.38m jumped by the United States’ Jeff Henderson when he won Olympic gold in Rio this August. Rehm fought to be included in the Rio Games but was rejected by the world athletics’ governing body, the IAAF, on the grounds that his blade may give him an unfair advantage over someone with two legs. He is still hoping for the Tokyo Games.
“My goal was to compete at the Olympics and I’d love to compete there even without the ranking because I’m a proper Olympian and this is my main event here,” he said after competing in the 4x100 relay in Rio.
Another athlete catching attention for crossover potential is Algeria’s Abdellatif Baka, who ran the 1,500m in the T3 category for impaired vision, winning with a time of 3:48.29 that would have given him Olympic gold.
Arnie Fourie, a single amputee South African Paralympian, says Pistorius’ legacy hangs over the Games.
“Oscar is obviously missed. I mean, what he has done for the sport not only in our country but for the world — what he’s done no one can ever take that away from him. There’s room for new people to step up,” he said.
