2012 Summer OlympicsMedia Monster

Oscar Pistorius: Olympic Inspiration, Paralympic Goat

Going up against the world’s best runners on two prosthetic legs was surely a remarkable moment for Oscar Pistorius and the Olympic-watching world. But surely, it isn’t where The Blade Runner expected to earn his mettle and medals this summer — that would be the Paralympics, where he has been one of the world’s best on the track since 2004.

But he was not the best on Sunday night, losing his first Paralympic race ever in the 200 meters. He didn’t chalk up the loss to having an off-night, or to winner Alan Fonteles Oliverira’s masterful performance, but rather to an alleged advantage the height of his rival’s blades gave him. That kind of unwarranted hurling of Oliverira under the bus is pretty dickish under normal circumstances, but coming from a guy who’s been facing the same exact harsh criticism for years? Come on dude, that’s not very Citius, Altius, Fortius of you.

According to the Vancouver Sun, here’s how Pistorius handled defeat:

“We’re not running in a fair race here,” said Pistorius, 25..“I’m not taking anything away from Alan’s performance, but I can’t compete with Alan’s stride. Absolutely ridiculous.”

Now, Pistorius did apologize a little later, if you could call it that. Let’s just say the damage had been done, and it’s not like he did much to quell the flames from the fire he started.

“That was Alan’s moment and I would like to put on record the respect I have for him . . . I do believe there is an issue here . . . but I accept that raising those concerns immediately as I stepped off the track was wrong.”

Well, talk about a character transformation. Turns out being the golden boy of the Olympics wanted so badly to be the actual golden boy of the Paralympics, that he actually stooped this low when all he could muster up was silver.

For the sake of speculation, let’s even give Pistorius the improbable benefit of the doubt, and assume that Oliverira’s blades did breach Paralympic protocol. There’s still probably a more tactful way for Pistorius to lobby his grievances. Remember Oscar, you’ve been facing the same exact scrutiny your entire professional life, except the scrutiny you’ve caught has only been more publicized and intense.

Doesn’t seem like the same kind of hot air you want to impart on your Paralympic competitors publicly, even if you did expect foul play.

[Vancouver Sun, photo via Getty]

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