Comments on: Why Oscar ‘Bladerunner’ Pistorius shouldn’t compete in the Olympics

By: HENKE PISTORIUS

HENKE PISTORIUS — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:39:41 +0000

Hope to have more debate on the reference of, “differently ABLE” vs “disable”.
All the Differently ABLE people & athletes would appreciate every bit of support that will help to create enough momentum that will allow the general public, the IPC( International Paralympic Comm),the IAAF and other support organizations to adopt and start using the word “DIFFERENTLY ABLE”, rather than “DISable” in their Official documents and press releases.

By: Henke Pistorius

Henke Pistorius — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:40:54 +0000

Paul, you’r correct. Money and the associations made by the dynamic nature of the human mind do tend to pull issues onto different menus, not naturally associated with originally.
Nike and Perilli are now two of Oscar’s main sponsors – many associations can and are made with positive powerfull stories of what is humanly possible.
Lets hope more “differently able” athletes/people realise that with complete self believe, focused commitment and enthusiasm in what is possible to do, they CAN DO.
What is possible, what you CAN is only limited by your OWN perceptions – lets not forget that.
“I bet you that their is not one differently able person who would have chosen the word ‘disable’to refer to him/herself.”
Often the ‘disabling, inabillity,help me,can not’ notion is instilled by parents own ‘mental dissabillity’ to manage a child with different abillities. That is also true for the general public’s own dissabillity to embrace differences ‘normal’ in all our societies.
Oscar said to a TV interviewer one’s, “remember I am not disable, I just do not have legs like you.”
(yes I am a parent, I get side tracked-pardon me)
Henke Pistorius.
they can be much more “able” than what the average person. thinks.

By: Paul Raven

Paul Raven — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:25:18 +0000

Thanks for your comment Mr Pistorius; I think if you look at our other comments here, you’ll see that most of us agree with you. But the debate goes wider than the simple ethical issues because of the money involved in sports as an industry – and where money is involved, you can expect corporations to not care much about the ethical considerations.

By: Henke Pistorius

Henke Pistorius — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:08:30 +0000

Oscar, a T43(double below the knee amputee) uses prosthesis available to amputees for over a decade -13years, I think.
When Oscar kneels down at the starting line, 70-100% of his T44 (single below the knee amputees)competitors, wears the same prosthesis.
Oscar has NEVER run against another T43 at international level. Balance as a double amputee, when walking is very difficult, running nearly impossible. Oscar is the difference.
T44 athletic records were 12-15% faster than the T43 records in the pre-Oscar era, today the situation is nearly reversed – with the same prosthesis. What is the difference?
Oscar started running 11 months before the Athens Olympics with prosthesis made by a friend and his father in a nearby airport hunger. These prosthesis were primitive, also carbon fibre prosthesis (called “blades” by elder brother Carl) which often snapped like glass, in full flight, sending Oscar sliding across the track. Oscar lost a lot of skin during those first months, but none of his incredible enthusiasm, dedication and commitment – “I will be the fasted dad he promised/announce during the first minutes on his “home made” (dangerously primitive)blades.
Oscar shattered the 100meter and 200meter World Records for both the T43 and T44 classes in his FIRST official Open Competition(so called able bodies.)
-at the time we did not realise that Oscar had chattered the Paralympic T43 100 meter World Record by 0,59 of a second. In fact it was only much later that we realize that Oscar, our “DIFFERENTL ABLE” (vs DISABLE – please can we not ALL change this “disabling name” to something more ABELING? PLEASE!!) son has broken the Paralympic World Records, 100 and 200m. The 200m World Record with more than 2 seconds.
There is NOT now going to be a stream of paralympic athletes qualifying for the Open Olympics – so lets leave it OPEN and allow Oscar the competition he so truly deserves.
Should critics not rather concentrate on what this very good athlete – in the truly Olympic sense of the word – contribute to what we ideally expect from a top athlete?
A WORTH WHILE THOUGHT – thank you for your time.

By: Realitybytes

Realitybytes — Wed, 28 May 2008 09:15:48 +0000

I am totally with you on the fascination with watching sports. What’s with that?