The Court of Arbitration For Sport has ruled that Oscar Pistorius can run in the Beijing Olympics in August. They over turned the IAAF, the ruling body of International Track and Field. The South African can now participate in the 2008 Games providing he is able to post a time at least equal to the Olympic standard of 45.00 in the 400 meters, (Oscar's best time so far this year is 46.56), or be chosen by the South African's for their Olympic team.
Why is this such a big deal? And trust me, this is a big deal.
Oscar is known as "the fastest man on no legs." He was born, 21 years ago without fibulas - the long, thin outer bone between the knee and the ankle -and was 11 months old when his legs were amputated below the knee. Oscar runs on "blades," Cheetah Flex-Foot carbon fibre transtibial artificial limbs.
A true athlete, in high school he played tennis, water polo, wrestling, and rugby. In fact "Oz" was introduced to running, four years ago, while recovering from a rugby injury, and "he never looked back." In the 2006 Paralympic World Championships, he won gold in the 100, 200, and 400 meter events. Now he wants to run against the "World's Best," in the 2008 Olympics.
His personal motto is, "You're not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have." Sounds a lot like the Olympic Motto.
p.s. We received our first comment. A very nice one on our blog titled MEMORIAL DAY. Many thanks to Anonymous.
Comments welcomed...Please click on the "Comment" link just below and let us know what you think - CJ.
Legendary Sportscaster Charlie Jones offers his thoughts and opinions on the world of sports, politics and life in general. Don't miss his wit and world-class sense of humor on his thought provoking and inspiring blog posts. Please forward this link on to your friends and family and please feel free to add a comment. Enjoy! http://charliejonesonsports.blogspot.com/
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- Charlie Jones spent over 45 years as a professional broadcaster and an unprecedented 38 years as an AFL and NFL play-by-play announcer. In his first assignment, Jones called the play-by-play for the first AFL game ever broadcast. He also contributed to "ABC's Wide World of Sports" during his stint with ABC. For NBC, Jones described 28 different sports, including golf, Wimbledon tennis, figure skating, and numerous events for NBC's "SportsWorld." Jones worked the Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta Olympic Games as well as the first AFL Championship game and Super Bowl I for NBC. In 1997, Jones was honored with the Pro Football Hall of Fame's distinguished Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. Jones won a 1973 Emmy Award for his work as writer, producer and host of the documentary, "Is Winning the Name of the Game?" An accomplished author, Jones penned "What Makes Winners Win," published in 1997. He later co-wrote, co-produced and co-hosted the award-winning PBS series, "The American Frontier," with Merlin Olsen.
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