Oscar Pistorius.

                                                               (Wall Street Journal, 04/08/2012; by Bruce Orwall)

LONDON—Oscar Pistorius was already a full-blown sensation when he stepped onto the Olympic Stadium track on Saturday, backed by an adoring crowd and a package of endorsements that would be the envy of any track star here not named Usain Bolt.
Then the South African star not only became the first double-amputee to compete in the Olympics; he asserted his place there by qualifying for the men's 400-meter semifinals on Sunday.

Pistorius, who runs on L-shaped carbon blades, finished second in his heat with a time of 45.44 seconds. That was 16th-best overall in qualifying heats, in which Belgium's Jonathan Borlee posted the best mark of 44.43 seconds.

"I found myself smiling in the starting blocks, which is rare in the 400-meter," Pistorius said. The Blade Runner, as he's known, described coming onto the track and seeing his 89-year-old grandmother in the stands. He realized he might have the crowd behind him when he heard someone shout from the stands: "You sexy baby!"

"I've still got goose bumps and my race was an hour ago," Pistorius said. And indeed, after his sprint, he took an hour-long lap through the press line while other athletes either breezed by unnoticed or stopped to answer questions about…Oscar Pistorius.

"It takes a lot of courage and confidence to do what he's doing," said Grenada's Kirani James. The other athletes seemed eager to treat Pistorius as an equal, not an oddity. "I just see him as another athlete and another competitor."

Pistorius's success Saturday will likely also extend the debate over whether his high-tech blades actually provide some sort of advantage. The few who addressed it on Saturday weren't taking the bait, however.

."I think it is fair," said Tony McQuay of the U.S., whose time in another heat was just behind Pistorius's at 45.48. "It's not like he broke the world record the first time he stepped on the track. He's working hard like everyone else."

While the other 400-meter runners came and went quickly, a beaming Pistorius cheerily gave a detailed account of his pre-race activities and described every meter of his race, which he said was his second best of the season.

"My coaching staff has done a good job to let me peak at the right time," he said.


Pistorius, who already had Nike and Oakley endorsements among others, appears headed to being one of the biggest stories on the track over the next week, and his advance to the semifinals will likely bring an even bigger spotlight on Sunday.
Even as he moved through making history in the able-bodied Olympics, Pistorius made sure he gave a shout-out to his roots in events for the disabled. "My first Paralympics," he said, "was one the highlights of my career."