Oscar Pistorius
South African sprinter and convicted murderer (born 1986)
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius ( pist-OR-ee-əs, Afrikaans: [pəˈstuəriœs]; born 22 November 1986) is a South African double amputee, former professional sprinter, and convicted murderer. He was the 10th athlete to compete at both the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games. Pistorius ran in both nondisabled sprint events and in sprint events for below-knee amputees. Both of his legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old as a result of a birth defect; he was born missing the outsides of both feet and both fibulas.
Pistorius's athletic career ended when he was convicted of murder in 2015. He was first convicted of culpable homicide of his then-girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, which was subsequently upgraded to murder upon appeal.
After becoming a Paralympic champion, Pistorius attempted to enter nondisabled international competitions, over persistent objections by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and arguments that his artificial limbs gave an unfair advantage. Pistorius prevailed in this legal dispute. At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Pistorius was the first amputee to win a nondisabled world track medal. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Pistorius was the first double-leg amputee participant.
The public source identifies “Oscar Pistorius” as south African sprinter and convicted murderer (born 1986). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Oscar, Pistorius and South.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q201377. VIAF identifies the subject as 86410902. The Library of Congress control number is no2009107210. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986, 2015, 2011 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Oscar Pistorius” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.