However, when it happened to Oscar Pistorius (born on 22nd November, 1976 in Pretoria, Gauteng Province) at the age of 11months, his life just began. He was keen on sports like rugby, water polo and tennis while in school (Pretoria Boys’ High School). After a serious rugby knee injury, he was introduced to athletics in January 2004 while undergoing rehabilitation. And the rest was...Eternity.

Pistorius seemingly went on a record-breaking and record-making spree after that. His career at an awed glance:

2004: He came third overall in the T44 100m event and won the finals with a world record time of 21.97 seconds the Summer Paralympics.

2005: Storius finished sixth in the South African Championships over 400m.

Despite the honorable invitation from IAAF to take part in an able-bodied event, the 400m race at the IAAF Grand Prix in Helsinki, Finland, he missed the opportunity due to school work pressure.

2006: He bagged gold in the 100, 200 and 400m events, breaking the world record over 200 m. at the Paralympics Athletics World Championships

In the same year, Pistorius was conferred the Order of Ikhamanga in Bronze (OIB) by the President of South Africa for outstanding achievement in sports.

17 March, 2007 Pistorius finished second in the South African Championships, with a time record of 46.56 seconds.

13th July 2007, Pistorius ran in the 400m race at Rome’s Golden Gala and finished second in run B with a time of 46.90s, closely followed by the 400m at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield on July 15, 2007, which didn’t go too well, given that he finished seventh among eight contestants and was disqualified for running outside his lane.

Pistorius looks forward to participating with aplomb in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, and other able-bodied events.
And all that with his artificial limbs, j-shaped carbon-fibre prosthetics, called ‘Cheetahs’, manufactured by Icelandic company Össur.

He has been the subject of heated controversies and often accused of receiving unfavorable advantages. However, no obstacle has yet succeeded in blocking his path. He runs on and on and on and has aptly been labeled ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘the fastest man on no legs’.

Pistorius’ story only opens our eyes to the realization that if he can come so far in life after being born without fibulae in both legs due to a congenital condition, there is no limit to what the rest of us, blessed with all faculties, can achieve in life.

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Sprinter Marion Jones has been slapped a two-year ban by the world governing body of athletics, IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation), for doping. She has also been stripped of her Olympic and world championship titles and all her other results have been annulled. All relay teammates of Jones ( from the 2000 Sydney Olympics) have also been disqualified and stripped of their medals. Jones has also been told to return prize money, estimated at $700,000. According to IAAF spokesperson Nick Davies, Jones can compete only after she has paid back the stated amount of prize money. Therefore, though Jones has actually retired, she remains officially suspended till 7 October 2009. She would also have to give a 12 months’ notice to the IAAF if she wanted to compete again following the ban.

Jones won the 200 meter world title in 2001 and had claimed the gold medals in the 100 meter, 200 meter and the 1600 meter relay in the Sydney Olympics. She also won the bronze medals in the 400 meter relay and long jump in 2001.

Jones had admitted that she had taken the designer steroid ‘the clear’ during the period September 2000 to July 2001. She retired last month after pleading guilty to federal investigators in 2003. She has returned her Olympic medals ( five), and has also agreed to forfeit all her results dating to 1 September 2000. However, IAAF and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are yet to take a stand on altering the record books and revising the awarded medals.

It is up to the IOC ( which has the authority over Olympic medals) to decide whether Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou would be upgraded to the 100 meter Olympic gold medal. Thanou and Kostas Kenteris (Thanou’s fellow Greek runner) had failed to show up for a drug test in 2004, stating that they had been injured in a motorcycle accident and both pulled out of the Athens Olympics, 2004. Both were later awarded two-year bans.

Jacques Rogge, the president of the IOC, has stated that only ‘clean’ athletes will be moved up in medal positions. There would be no automatic upgrades, and hence, keeping the 100 meter winner’s spot vacant remains a possibility.

source:edition.cnn

It is reported that Justin Gatlin’s 8-year-long suspension on charges of doping, has been cut down to only 4 years. The 100m Olympic champ from America was banned in 2006, when he tested positive for testosterone at the low-level relay race held at Kansas in the month of April 2006. He was the winner of 100m title at the Athens Olympic in 2004 and won the world 100m and 200 m titles in 2005.

Initially, Gatlin was supposed to be given a lifelong ban! Then he willingly came forward to assist the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (Usada) anti-doping crusade and he was sentenced to 8-year-ban. After the 25-year-old appealed again against the length of suspension last summer, Usada revealed that an arbitration board had voted 2-1 in favor of the 4-year suspension.

According to The Washington Post reports, two among the three members of the arbitration panel suggested that they could not give less than a 4-year ban because of the another positive dope-test of Gatlin in 2001.

Even after the reduction of his suspension term, the champion racer will not be able to compete again before 24th May, 2010. It is expected that he will be appealing again to further cut down the 4-year term even though this is the minimum sanction as per 2006 recommendations of the worldwide governing body IAAF.

Neither Gatlin nor his solicitor has yet made any comment on the recent judgment or whether they will again appeal against this verdict to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas). Gatlin has not participated in any competition after he won the 100m race at the 2006 US national championships held in June.

Gatlin, who was the strongest contender and the defending champion at Beijing Olympic, confessed that he had tested positive for doping, had claimed that he never consumed those banned compounds deliberately. His mother has told the media that her son is still optimistic about starting to race again in future. She said,

There is no doubt about that...We will be talking to his lawyer. I think everybody is blindsided by this decision.

When Gatlin tested positive for doping at Kansas in 2006, it was his 2nd drug test in which he failed. He first failed a drug test in the 2001 USA Junior Championships when amphetamines were found in his samples. But then, the reason for this failed test was reportedly caused by a medicine that he had been consuming for almost 10 years to tackle his attention-deficit disorder.

As per the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) code, he was supposed to be punished with a lifetime suspension after 2 failed tests. On Tuesday, Usada chief executive officer Travis Tygart said,

Mr Gatlin should be commended for his decision to cooperate with authorities following his positive test...However, these efforts do not completely remove his responsibility for his second doping offence...Given his cooperation and the circumstances relating to Mr Gatlin’s first offence, the four-year penalty issued by the arbitration panel is a fair and just outcome.

How far Gatlin truly executes his promise to campaign against anti-doping after his 4-year sanction is over, is a contentious issue.

Source: BBC

Martina Hingis has been banned for 2 years after she was found testing positive for cocaine in a dope test, conducted during the 2007 Wimbledon championship. The Swiss star had appealed against the dope charges, but the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has discarded her appeal. It has declared a ban to be effective from 1 October, 2007. Hingis, who has won WTA singles title 43 times in her entire career, had just revived her game in 2006 after a gap of three years.
The tennis superstar had tested positive during the customary urine test performed after she lost to Laura Granville at the third round of the tournament. The five-time Grand Slam winner had previously defended herself persistently by saying that she was

100% innocent.

She asserted her innocence by proclaiming that her hair test, which can prove whether a person has consumed cocaine or not), was negative. The 27 year old former world number one not only retired from international sports after the doping revelation, she also had to surrender her ranking points and prize money both from the then ongoing Wimbledon series and any succeeding contests. In the month of November, 2007, her spokesperson Mario Widmer told BBC Sports,

She will be fighting this, of course. You can be clear about that.

Later, ITF issued a statement that said,

Following a two-day hearing in December 2007, an independent anti-doping tribunal found that a sample provided by Ms Hingis on 29 June 2007 at the Wimbledon Championships had tested positive for a metabolite of cocaine...The tribunal rejected the suggestion made on behalf of Ms Hingis that there were doubts about the identity and/or integrity of the sample attributed to her...The tribunal also rejected Ms Hingis’s plea of no (or no significant) fault or negligence, on the basis that no mitigation was possible as it had not been shown how the cocaine entered her system.

It is expected that millions of her fans across the globe will be deeply disheartened by the news of her suspension term.

Source:bbc

Although the Woking-based Mclaren had legal points to support their appeal, there is no doubt that this was a covert attempt by the team to cover its technical mistaken during the last two races in China and Brazil. Furthermore, Mclaren has lost a lot of credibility since the ’spygate’ scandal and the behaviour meted out to former driver Fernando Alonso which saw the Spanish driver and former champion leave the team immediately after the season. This was one last effort made by team boss Ron Denis to bring some smile in the faces of Mclaren supporters and team members.

But one team member who would be highly relieved is the brilliant rookie driver Lewis Hamilton. The British driver, in his first season as a Formula One driver, has impressed the racing fraternity with his matured and skilled driving and was the favourite to win the crown until Mclaren’s mistakes and Kimi Raikonen’s ice-cool driving came in his way. Hamilton, like a true sportsman had always insisted that the Finn Raikonen was the deserved winner and the appeal was useless. But team Mclaren was desperate to win something that could have compensated the massive fine that it had to pay following the shameful spying scandal.

No doubt, this FIA ruling would provide a lot of credibility to the sport of Formula One for the next season and there would be no more twists in this season’s competition.

Image Link: Eurosport

I am not playing in Bangalore Open. I have been advised by my manager not to play because a lot has been happening in the past few months…Every time I have played in India, there has been some kind of problem. So we just thought it was better not to play this time… It (withdrawing from the Bangalore Open) is not an extreme reaction. The controversies have been going on for a long time. It is not easy to deal with such stuff…

Just before the Australian Open last month, she was in a controversy when pictures showed her bare feet resting near the Indian flag. After this the current world no. 29 had even thought of quitting the game for ever. Such continuous rows and protests against her attire, ad campaigns and style sense indeed have dissuaded her to stay focussed in the career and eventually, this has hampered her game. She has always been distracted from tennis on account of these extremist statements challenging her faith and patriotism. Her mixed doubles partner, Mahesh Bhupathi was quoted saying,

She has really been pained by all that has happened in the last few months. It is really unfortunate. We want that she should have the right frame of mind when playing in tournaments.

It is indeed a shame for people of India, to witness such a terrible and nonsensical religious uprising, every time she steps on the tennis court wearing mini skirt or sleeveless top. When will these people grow up? When will they realize that she is playing for India? People should be concerned about how she plays the game and not about the length of her skirt! I mean I find these extremist opinions even in this generation so ridiculous. The management of such popular sporting events cannot stitch clothes depending on the player’s religion. It is regrettable that the first ever female tennis player from India, who has won numerous accolades for her country on account of her tennis talent, has backed out from playing in India. I doubt, whether this decision will have any sensible impact on the unlimited demands of the ultra-nationalists.

Source: TheAge

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There is something that makes you sit up and take notice when great men choose to demonstrate the magic of their craft. It is probably all those PGA titles that make you take notice when he speaks, but irrespective of the reasons; when Tiger Woods speaks, the world pays close attention. But then I must confess that even a Tiger woods teeing off cannot keep me up when I start watching golf. I mean, I rarely even feel like watching it and even when I will myself to do so, it is not long before I doze off.

I always wondered what all the fuss was about hitting a still ball in to a hole, but after trying a couple of times I realized the truth. It is just that men like Woods make it look so easy. So when a player of his caliber is out on a hiatus attending paternal duty, then it sure is a big break for all the others that constantly end up runner-up to the great man. But Tiger, being the generous bloke that he is, has decided to give them an opportunity to win £1.8m each year as he has refused to join the European Tour any time soon.

The Dubai Open is going to be the season ending tournament each year with the top 60 players of the world fighting it out for the £1.8m prize money. But to qualify for the event each player must play at least 11 Tour-sanctioned events each year. According to Tiger, that is a few too many. It is hard to blame the man as he already earns a good £50 million each year and that amount is only going to go up. So to expect that he would join the European Tour and play more number of events for the prize money in Dubai is a bit ridiculous.

This might not be a very bad thing as it gives many other players a chance to earn a sum, which would be surely huge for them. Tiger also spoke about his return and the fact that his longest break since he went professional was actually delightful. He said that he loved spending every minute with his baby girl, while his wife went away to ski. He said that he quite enjoyed all the precious moments with his daughter and told that even the sleepless nights were special. It seems that the great man has finally found some time for his personal life and that is sure going to revitalize him for seasons ahead.

Tiger’s comeback will be over an invitational featuring strong British Isles presence in Luke Donald, Paul Casey, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Open champion Padraig Harrington. It is expected to ease Tiger back in to his famous swing and hopefully we’ll see a clean sweep of the majors next time around.

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Arena World Cup in Berlin has become judging ground for world’s top swimmers who are preparing themselves for the Beijing Olympic Games. In the two-day event, Swedish Stefan Nystrand has made two world records. The 26-year-old and a freestyle and breaststroke swimmer, Nystrand has bettered the world record in the men’s 50-meter freestyle by clocking 20.93 seconds, and a day earlier, a world record in the 100-meter freestyle by finishing in 45.83 seconds. He said,

It’s my aim to keep on improving, especially with regard to the Olympic Games next year. I would like to capture two gold medals there.

Nystrand explained that because loosing few competitions in the past, he drastically changed his lifestyle two years ago, going on a diet and increasing his training programme.

In the women’s events, Dutch Marleen Veldhuis set the world record in the women’s 50-meter freestyle by clocking 23.58 seconds, lowering the old record by 0.01 second. South Korean swimmer Park Tae-Hwan does not lag behind from the top swimmers of the world. He also seized two golds over the past two days.

The fast swimmer firstly bagged gold medal in in the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle swimming and after five minutes he participate in the men’s 200-meter freestyle and finished with 1:42.22 to seal his second gold medal. Speaking about the success of Park, his coach Seok Ki Park said,

It’s no problem for Tae Hwan to compete on such a high level in two successive races. We have not decided yet if Tae Hwan is going to compete in the200m freestyle at the Beijing Olympic Games. Our priority are the 400m and 1500 freestyles.

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West Ham left it late to inflict a surprising 2-1 defeat on Manchester United. Title holders and league leaders Manchester United headed into Saturday’s fixture at Upton Park full of confidence. They were in for a rude shock as a late charge by the Hammers handed them a defeat.

United started brightly enough and the opener was scored by Ronaldo in 14th minute itself. He headed home a Ryan Giggs cross. Thereafter, however, the inform midfielder was guilty of missing a penalty in the 2nd half, after a handball by Jonathon Spector.

Curbishly’s men pushed for an equalizer and they came close on 36th minute when Kuszczak denied Nolberto Solano. Carton Cole also came close but his header went just over top of United’s bar. At the troke of halftime, Ronaldo was put through for a wonderful opportunity. He dragged his shot wide to leave score at 1-0 in favor of United.

In the second half too it was the home time that made all the moves and they were justly rewarded in the 77th minute. Noble’s corner found Anton Ferdinand in open and he poked his shot into the net. United tried to push for a win and sacrificed Hargreaves for Nani. It was this tactical blunder that perhaps cost them the match. Another Noble set-piece found Matthew Upson who gleefully headed the ball into the back of the goal.

With this result West Ham earned their third successive win over the Red Devils. Also, Anton Ferdinand got one over his elder brother and United stalwart Rio. The Londoners have also added a twist to the title race at the very last of 2007. With Arsenal result still awaited, it is not clear who’ll head the table as action moves to a new year. One thing’s for sure though, there might be some surprises before this title is won!

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Many teams, including Toyota and Red Bull, were linked to Alonso ever since the former champion left Mclaren under acrimonius circumstances but some important factors made the Spaniard rejoin Renault. Firstly, Alonso would be given the number one driver status in the team which was a serious issue in his one year with Mclaren after Lewis Hamilton’s strong driving performance. Furthermore, he would be working under familiar working environment and both Fernando and the team know each other perfectly. Renault team boss Flavio Briatore has excellent relationship with with the Spanish driver and both enjoy each other’s work ethics. With the driving line-up decided for Renault where Alonso would partner Brazilian newcomer Nelsinho, the onus is now upon the French team to produce the desired car to help Fernando Alonso and the rest of the team to compete for the championship next season.

Success in formula one is absolutely essential and with the high-profile Fernando Alonso back in their fold, Renault cannot afford to repeat their poor 2007 performance next season. No doubt Briatore and his team would need to work tremendously hard over the close season to make a mark in the coming season which is equally essential for Fernando Alonso’s successful career.

Image Link: Eurosport

It is sad news for the admirers of the Swiss grace, Roger Federer as he failed to conquer the King of Clay’, Rafael Nadal in the final of the Hamburg Masters. Roger was the defending Champion and the number one seed in the clay court tournament but that didn’t help him to defeat Nadal in the final despite coming off well initially. He led the first set 5-1 before Nadal started to do what he does best on such courts to eventually win the match 7-5 6-7 (3-7) 6-3.

It wasn’t a runaway win for Nadal as he had to struggle for 2hours and 52 minutes before clinching his first Hamburg Masters Title. Federer the only man probably that could have defeated him on clay has been defeated on 8 of their previous nine meetings on the toughest surface to play on. For Nadal it was a victory in a clay court tournament that he had never won.

This loss saw Federer eventually putting an end to his 41 matches’ winning spree on German Soil. The loss makes Nadal an absolute favorite to win at next months French Open but going by Federer’s stance, don’t just count him out as yet.

[Source]

This time around it was Andy Roddick, someone who hasn’t managed to defeat the Swiss legend in the making in five years, pummelling him 7-6 4-6 6-3 at the quarter final of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Even Roddick could sense an under par performer as he mentioned:

He hasn’t missed a ball against me for about six years, I figured the law of statistics had to work for me eventually.

Tell you what people, I am a big admirer of Federer and his graceful style of play so here’s just hoping that the man quickly finds form before he goes on quest for clinching the Slams. The critics are out there with their daggers Roger; it’s high time you silence them.

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The Deutche Telekom company is realizing the nightmarish marketing scheme and the drug problems involved in granting sponsorships to the cycling teams. Even though the company started with lofty goal of eliminating the drug problem in the sport of cycling, it’s backing off from this ordeal.

The company now faces the ultimate question, whether they want to be associated with the sport of cycling as well as the doping associated with the same. The T-Mobile Executive Vice President Stephan Althoff recently recently expressed his views regarding this issue:

The question for Deutsche Telekom as a company is, Do we want to be associated with cycling and the doping in cycling?

What led the company withdraw from the sport? Series of events led to this decision. Last August, following the T-mobile commitment to the cycling team, the news media elaborately hyped about the doping issues. Before the current season was on it’s way, the biking team was charged of doping For a reputed company like T-mobile, this is a pretty serious charge. It can damage their main business. People won’t simply buy the products once they hear T-mobile is supporting a team using drugs.

A former telecom exec Bob Stapleton introduced some reforms in the cycling arena. Mandatory drug screening for all participants of a team is now required if they want to get sponsored. Unlike the Discovery channel team partly owned by Lance Armstrong, Stapleton will try to move on with his team for next season or two despite the sponsorship loss. This is just so that the bike industry gets some money eventually as well as a clean slate.

I am sure you are wondering by now if this is a hype of if it’s real. The situation became critical when one of the carry over German rider Patrik Sinkewitz was tested positive for doping. Hopefully, the new reforms will improve the cycling industry. T-Mobile will still be a NBA sponsor.

Image Credit: BBC

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.....the countdown has begun for 2060 when scientists in France say no more sports record will be created or broken. If experts at France’s biomedical and epidemiological institute of sport, Irmes, are to be believed, then the world would have reach its physiological capacity just over 50 years from now.

According to Irmes, athletes have been consistently using their increasingly exploring their capabilities over time. Way back in 1896, when the world’s first modern Olympics were held, athletes were using 75% of their physical capacity but after more than a century, they are employing 99% of it.

The researches at Irmes, which has connections with the French sports ministry, say that by 2060 athletes will be using the entire 100% of their physiological capacity and that would imply no more records being set or old records being broken. That will be the end wall for all sporting records.

Head of Irmes, Jean-Francois (cedilla) Toussaint, says:

It’s the beginning of the end. We are reaching the limit in terms of physiological capacities of the human race. One can observe phases rich in records at the start of the century, and in the 20s and 50s to 60s, and two sluggish periods corresponding to the two World Wars. But since the 1970s, the graphs show an inexorable decline in the number of records beaten.

Mr Toussaint further said:

It is improbable that a man on two feet will one day run the 100 metres in nine seconds.

The world seems to be reaching the climax in one particular aspect. Sport is the biggest turn on in he world and it appears that by 2060 much of the charm of sport will be lost.

Image Source: Hone Watson

Source: the Telegraph

This was according to the recent report published by the New York Times. The investigation on this issue was led by George Mitchell, who is planning to submit his findings for more than a year to a news conference.

Steroids are the so-called enhancing drugs that heighten the adrenalin rush of the players while in play. These are not permitted to be in use since they are unnatural enhancers causing a feeling of highness or euphoria in players.

MLB officials met Mitchell in his law firm DLA Piper where the former were given report copies prior to the making of the investigation be public.

Based on reports, pieces of evidence gathered by Mtchell were in the form of phone records, checks, and shipment transaction of the prohibited drugs.

Mitchell’s report is a crucial finding since there were attempts to deny allegations that baseball players were not using steroids and all other investigations in the past where treated as mere ‘hearsays’ and no basis.

Reluctance among players to talk was a big factor to identify the issues’ whereabouts. But Mitchell was able to get accounts of the managers, former players, coaches and attendants about what they know on the issues as evidence of steroid use. There were already names surfacing but their identities and their involvement have yet to be confirmed.
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