How Did Oscar Pistorius Become Disabled? How Did Oscar Pistorius Loose His Legs?

Both of Oscar Pistorius’s feet were amputated when he was 11 months old owing to a congenital defect; he was born missing the outside of both feet and both fibulae. Pistorius ran in both non-disabled sprint events and sprint events for below-knee amputees.

After a serious rugby knee injury in June 2003, he was introduced to running in January 2004 while undergoing rehabilitation at the University of Pretoria’s High-Performance Centre with coach Ampie Louw, and “never looked back”.

His first racing blades were fitted by South African prosthetist Francois van der Watt. Because he was unable to find suitable running blades in Pretoria, Van der Watt ordered the pair to be made by a local engineer.

At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Pistorius was the first amputee to win a non-disabled world track medal.