6th July, 2012
It’s been a long journey from the east of Pretoria, which Oscar Pistorius calls home, to the east of London, where he will be the centre of attention of the sporting world next month. On Wednesday, the fastest man on no legs did not make light of the strain of what has been a five-year journey.
“Today is truly one of the proudest days of my life. To have been selected to represent Team South Africa at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the individual 400m and the 4x400m relay is a real honour and I am so pleased that years of hard work, determination and sacrifice have all come together.
I have run two Olympic ‘A’ standard times over the past twelve months and with the time I ran at the African Championships last week I know my speed and fitness are constantly improving so that I will peak in time for the Olympics.
I have a phenomenal team behind me who have helped get me here and I, along with them, will now put everything we can into the final few weeks of preparations before the Olympic Games where I am aiming to race well, work well through the rounds, post good times and maybe even a personal best time on the biggest stage of them all.
I am also hugely excited to then be competing to defend my three Paralympic titles at the Paralympic Games. I believe will see some amazing times posted and I am very much looking forward to what will be an incredible Olympics and Paralympics in London.”