SALON

Sunday, Jul 29, 2012 4:00 PM UTC

Pistorius enjoying peaceful buildup to Olympics

By

Topics: From the Wires

Pistorius enjoying peaceful buildup to OlympicsSouth Africa's sprinter Oscar Pistorius poses for the photographers following his first open training session at the team base during the 2012 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 29, 2012, in London. Pistorius trained in relative peace and quiet Sunday alongside his South African teammates at a university track in a leafy suburb of west London. It'll get far busier for the history-making "Blade Runner" when he does his first formal media appearance Wednesday ahead of becoming the first amputee athlete to run at any Olympics. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)(Credit: AP)

LONDON (AP) — Out in leafy west London, double-amputee Oscar Pistorius gets to run in relative peace.

That will all change very soon.

The South African 400-meter runner, who is set to become the first amputee to compete on the track at the Olympics, had a relaxed training session Sunday at a small university way out on the other side of the city from the bustling Olympic Park.

It’ll get far busier for the 25-year-old “Blade Runner” starting Wednesday when he makes his first formal media appearance in London ahead of his historic debut Saturday in the 400 heats at the Olympic Stadium. He’ll also be on South Africa’s 4×400 relay team.

On Sunday, Pistorius ran 200-meter splits alongside teammate Ofentse Mogawane, pounding down the tree-lined track on his carbon-fiber blades as a handful of curious staff members and students from the university watched on. He then posed and smiled for a photo for two onlookers as he made his way back to his mark following one run.

Soon, though, Pistorius will likely be scrutinized by hordes of reporters, photographers and TV cameras when he makes his Olympic debut and finally completes his well-publicized four-year quest to run at the biggest track meet of them all.

Pistorius will probably attract as much attention as Olympic greats Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps in London after coming through an IAAF ban, a court case that cleared him to run on his blades, and a yearlong qualifying battle to make South Africa’s team.

Pistorius arrived in London from his training base in northern Italy just in time for Friday’s opening ceremony. He wasn’t going to go at first because of the time spent standing around and the late finish.

Pistorius’ main emotions ahead of his historic appearance at the London Games were “a mixture of pride, happiness and anticipation,” he said on arrival. But there are also nerves. He’s waited a long time for the chance to go up against the best able-bodied athletes in the world.

The multiple Paralympic champion has been training with South Africa’s Olympic team for the past two days at the small facility in the pleasantly named “Strawberry Hill” suburb. They’ll move into the athletes village on Monday.

A small group of people watched him Sunday as he sat on the track and put on his now-famous blades ahead of the session while joking with 4×400 relay teammate Mogawane.

The workout was brief but intense, starting with 50 and 100-meter bursts before their 200 splits.

Some students gathered in a group to talk near the track, although none of them wandered over to watch the world’s most famous Paralympian. But over the next few days, millions of eyes will focus on Pistorius as he counts down to one of the most anticipated debuts in Olympic history.

More Gerald Imray.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
191 points192 points | 7 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
138 points139 points | comment
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
48 points49 points | 8 comments
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
34 points35 points | 16 comments
vote
With the help of Photoshop, artist Yao Lu has made shanshui — traditional ink paintings — of China's landfills
19 points20 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations