Remember the double amputee who ran in the Olympics?

[tornado]

Oscar Pistorius - the guy who ran the 200m on blades in the Olympics championed the idea that it was totally fair that he used those blades because he had no legs....

Well - after Pistorius lost the 200m to another guy wearing almost identical blades in the London Paralympics...he accused the other guy of...
cheating because he had an unfair advantage - the other guy had better blades!

http://www.kmbz.com/-Blade-Runner-Oscar-Pistorius-Loses-Race-and-Says-/14142572

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Paralympics+2012+Oscar+Pistorius+cries+foul+after+200m+loss+Alan+Oliveira/7181555/story.html

"After losing..Pistorius told British broadcaster .."We are not running in a fair race here."
Pistorius insisted that there was an issue with large prosthetics lengthening his Brazilian competitor's stride.

...I do believe there is an issue here."
....Oliveira, 20, caught Pistorius in the final 20 meters of the final race last night,
marking the first time Pistorius didn't win a 200 meter run.

"He's never run a 21 second-race and I don't think he's a 21-second athlete,'' Pistorius had said.
"I don't know how you can come back, watching the replay, from eight meters behind on the 100 to win. It's absolutely ridiculous."



So....Pistorius is complaining because the other guy with NO LEGS used the blades to nab a clear advantage that helped him run faster?
I find these comments interesting and hypocritical because Pistorius is saying that the blades do
have the capability of giving the user a significant advantage and an advantage big enough to help a guy win.





next year some guy will show up wearing 6-ft blades! But I think this shows that anyone using any mechanical or unnatural equipment might be unfair because it could give an advantage.
If the guy can't even win his own race against people just like him using blades, then he has no right to complain if he & his blades get banned from a race where the other competitors aren't using blades.

[Da Coach]

Oscar Pistorius apologizes for outburst after shocking loss

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Oscar+Pistorius+apologizes+outburst+after+shocking+loss/7182810/story.html

Here is video of the come from behind win by Alan Oliveira

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gHnJz-lxLg

[Da Coach]

Oscar Pistorius' Olympic career may in a bit of jeopardy.
The South African national hero has been arrested and accused of murdering his girlfriend-

http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/02/14/blade-runner-pistorius-reportedly-being-questioned-in-shooting-death-girlfriend/

[tornado]

despite very tough gun laws in South Africa - guess what - it has the highest murder and gun violance rate of any nation that keeps accurate statistics...
The UN claims Columbia has more per capita but their statistics are very vague...

As small as the RSA is, they have 25% more murders in a year than the US has!!!!!
Oscar Pistorius still reportedly had a home full of guns & other weapons

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/oscar-pistorius-reportedly-had-arsenal-at-home-to-allay-fear-of-invasion-122246774.html

"South Africa now has very strict gun laws..
In order to legally own a gun in South Africa, first the prospective owner
undergoes a thorough police background check which involves an interview
with the spouse or partner as well as two other people. Then there is a
competency requirement which encompasses training as well as a criminal
record screening.
On top of that, the police have the discretion to give a licence or not and
the applicant has to explain comprehensively why they have to own a firearm"

and yet...
"South Africa's reputation for violence is well-documented. It has startlingly
high rates of murder, assault, rape and robbery. In 2010, the latest year for
which the UN has statistics for the country, 15,940 people were murdered in
South Africa. (population 50 million - only about 1/7 of the US and the USA had only 12,900 murders in 2010)

http://www.channel4.com/news/oscar-pistorius-south-africa-gun-law-gun-deaths

[Da Coach]

Crime in South Africa is out of control, and there is so much corruption in the police forces there that private citizens frequently feel they have no choice but to arm themselves.
Here is a chilling description of the crime and the state of the police in South Africa-

For the reporting year 1975-76 there were 6,000 murders in South Africa. By 1985 the total had risen to 8,959. By 1995 it had almost tripled to 25,782. Since then the number of murders has hovered around 25,000 per year. Twenty-five years ago the number of rapes stood around 15,000 per year. Now it averages around 50,000. During the same period robberies went from about 38,000 to 150,000. In the Johannesburg area about one in four homes is burglarized over a one-year period. In 1998 alone there were almost 800 attacks on farms and 134 farmers were murdered. For over a year the government put a moratorium on crime statistics, arguing that the methods used to collect them lead to errors. When the moratorium was lifted the new statistics showed that while a few categories of crime declined, the total number of serious crimes had in fact increased.
Many South Africans see gun ownership as their only option. The centralized national police force has become a toothless tiger. Mismanagement and corruption have taken their toll. Officers are being hired to meet racial quotas, but many of them cannot read, write, or even drive a patrol vehicle. Many simply do not turn up for work at all. In Johannesburg there are 94 police officers absent on any average day. The metropolitan area, with over 2.5 million people, only has 3,410 police officers to cover all shifts. The Mail & Guardian reported that during a 17-month period 340 officers were charged with helping prisoners escape; 195 with armed robbery; over 7,000 with assault; 306 with corruption; 291 with fraud; 332 with murder; 16 with operating a brothel; 149 with rape; 171 with robbery; 1,550 with theft; and 130 with stealing cars. These charges alone amount to over 10 percent of the active police force.
Another reason for the explosion of crime is that crime does pay, at least in South Africa. In 1997 there were 13,011 car hijackings. But there were only 1,099 prosecutions and only 209 convictions. Less than 2 percent of car hijackings lead to conviction. Some 85 percent of murderers are never convicted, and the same is true for 93 percent of all rapists.

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/scapegoating-gun-owners-in-south-africa/#ixzz2KtAf6gMr

[SFP]

I have friends who go there on business and in some areas they are escorted around town with armed guards.

[ZamBrave]

I travel through RSA several times a quarter - it is a beautiful country with a lot of incredible people. Unfortunately it also carries the burden of many substantial problems. One can only hope that things will improve with time. I honestly think it might be one the most visually stunning countries second mayhaps to Namibia.

[SFP]

I've been told Capetown is stunning and plenty of fun to be had.

[tornado]

as one might expect - of course the police came to Oscar Pistorius' home before he could erase all the evidence -
and of course since he's a world class athlete - guess what they found plenty of when they did search his home...?

Yup - they found gobs of steroids, testosterone, needles, syringes, etc...
There are reports that there were "boxes and boxes" of "every form possible" of performance enhancing steroids...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/9877016/Oscar-Pistorius-murder-charge-steroids-found-at-athletes-home.html

http://deadspin.com/5985333/reports-boxes-and-boxes-of-steroids-found-in-oscar-pistoriuss-home

In fact he might even try to use the steroids to his advantage and claim he was a victim of "'roid rage" - so that his behavior could not be helped..


I guess the thought I am left with after this, the Lance Armstrong thing, Clemens, Bonds, Sosa, etc.....and all the other reports we know of - is
that it is beginning to appear that just about every athlete that excels within his sport to the top level - to the "world class level" -
is quite possibly using performance enhancing drugs....can anyone at this point doubt this?

[ZamBrave]

Looks like this case is getting interesting already.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/wo...rges.html?_r=0

[tornado]

ignoring all the stuff that's happened since the Olympics -- now we have the basketball equivalent of Oscar Pistorius..

A double amputee kid in Colorado wants to play basketball but one concern is the spring-type prosthetics he wears give him a distinct advantage and are an injury risk...

http://www.denverpost.com/preps/ci_25031782/bailey-roby-high-school-amputee-basketball-dream

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/01/31/colorado-high-school-basketball-player-benched-over-prosthetics/s-hold

[tornado]

Oscar Pistorius' Olympic career may in a bit of jeopardy.
The South African national hero has been arrested and accused of murdering his girlfriend-
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/0...th-girlfriend/

The trial judge says Pistorius is not guilty of murder

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/11/world/africa/oscar-pistorius-verdict/

...it is still possible he could be found guilty of a charge they have named "culpable homicide"
..this is the equivalent in South Africa of what is called negligent homicide or negligent manslaughter elsewhere