Born without the fibula bone in both legs, South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius competes with carbon-fiber prosthetic blades.
Here’s what Oscar had to say about critics saying his prosthetic legs may be an advantage or disadvantage
“At end of the day, we run a distance of 400 meters. You have to get your body over that distance. Even if I look different visually, I still have to use my muscles, I still have to train, I still have to sacrifice. In order for me to travel that distance, I have to work extremely hard.”
Pistorius recalls something his mother, Sheila, once told him and his brother, Carl, when they were growing up. “She said, ‘Carl, you put on your shoes and Oscar you put on your prosthetics, and that’s the last I want to hear about it.’ I didn’t grow up thinking I had a disability. I grew up thinking I had different shoes.”
And that’s really all they are. Just different shoes. It’s the man who runs with them who’s important.
(via espn.com)
