Oscar Pistorious, a double amputee runner from South Africa, is set to become the first amputee athlete to compete at the World Championships in Athletics this summer in South Korea, having qualified for the men’s 400 meters and 4x400-meter relay.

For the 24-year-old, it will be a “proud moment.”

“This will be the highest-profile and most prestigious able-bodied event which I have ever competed in and I will face the highest caliber of athletes from across the planet,” Pistorius told Yonhap in an e-mail interview. Daegu, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, will host the International Association of Athletics Federations championships from Aug. 27-Sept. 4.

“It will be a proud day for me when I set out on the track in Daegu and I hope to do my country proud,” Pistorius added. “If I manage to make it through the heats, I would be thrilled.”

Dubbed “Blade Runner” for his carbon fiber artificial limbs, Pistorius was born without fibula, the outer bone between the knee and ankle, and his legs were amputated when he was barely a year old. Pistorius had his first track run on New Year’s Day in 2004, and seven years later, he made the worlds by finishing a 400-meter race last month at a personal-best 45.07 seconds, inside the qualifying time.

But he has come an even longer way to be able to compete at the world championships.

Pistorius, who has won a slew of titles at Paralympics and disability events, first competed against able-bodied runners in 2007. The IAAF later banned the use of “any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device.”

Then in 2008, the IAAF banned Pistorius from its competitions, based on findings that his prosthetic limbs gave him an advantage over able-bodied athletes. The Court of Arbitration for Sport later overruled the IAAF decision and made Pistorius eligible for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, though he didn’t ultimately qualify. Pistorius said he still sees “ill-informed comments online” about his artificial limbs.

“Some of the world’s leading scientists in this field have proven that I have no advantage when competing against able-bodied athletes,” he said. “I give (ill-informed comments) no credit at all.”

Having missed one chance at competing at the able-bodied Olympics, Pistorius said he wants to run not just in next year’s London Olympics, but also the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“If I remain free of serious injury, I plan to compete in Rio in 2016,” he said. “I should be at my peak then but, for now, I am just trying to do my best in every race that I run.” 

(Yonhap News)