Read Online Blade Runner by Oscar Pistorius - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Oscar Pistorius
Ads: Link
to 11.51, breaking my own world record
in the process. Then, following Ampie's encouragement and
advice, I decided to compete in the South African Disabled
Games. It was a first for me. Until then I had had no contact
whatsoever with the world of disabled athletics and the
experience of it made me approach my sporting career from
a completely different perspective. I found it quite an odd
experience: I felt very isolated and detached from the event,
since not only did I know no one but I was still focused on
returning to my career in rugby, and so I made little effort to
participate. I would arrive, warm up, race and immediately
leave. I did not feel that I belonged.
In truth, I had other things on my mind. I had fallen in love
for the first time and my girlfriend, Nandi, was a ball of fire.
I could not keep up with her as she kept changing her mind.
One minute she was interested in me, the next she was less
certain. She was great fun but I needed more consistency and
so decided to break up. Hot on Nandi's heels love struck for
real. It was May 2004 and along with a friend I decided to
organise a big lunch party. Each of us had to invite ten
people whom the other did not know, and he invited a girl
called Vicky. I was smitten at first sight. She was beautiful,
charming and unusual. We immediately hit it off and talked
for hours, and later that evening I met up with her at a
bonfire-night party. We were in love. As it was not long
before our annual school ball I asked her to accompany me
but unfortunately she had already agreed to attend the dance
in the company of a friend of mine. If I had not been so
disappointed it would have been amusing. Raul, the friend in
question, and I had been waxing lyrical to one another about
our new love interests who shared the name Vicky . . . Little
did we know we were talking about the same person. The
evening passed in an embarrassing blur with us staring
doe-eyed at one another, and pretty much as soon as the
midnight bell rang and the ball was over Vicky and I started
going out. We remained together for the next two years.
In the meantime Carl had finished school and went off to
work. It became almost impossible for him to keep up with
my engagements and ferry me back and forth between my
sporting commitments and training sessions, and so I decided
to buy myself a car. I had saved quite a bit of money that I
had earned by participating in a television advertisement, and
in addition I received a monthly bursary from MacSteel, the
company that produced the carbon prostheses I was using at
the time. They considered it a contribution to my sports
training. I started trawling the car dealers but fortunately
about a week into my search a friend of my father's came to
my aid, explaining that he could help me buy a car through
the company that he worked for.
And so it was that in May 2004 I bought my first car. It
was marvellous, a Smart cabriolet in black and silver; I
remember absolutely everything about it, and rather in the
same way that your first love remains special to you, so this
car will always have a place in my heart. I have many
wonderful memories of that car, but the overriding feeling it
gave me – one that remains with me to this day – was the
sense of freedom that came with owning my first car. It was
exactly as I had dreamed, and my ultimate pleasure was to
take it out at night and drive on the freeway with the music
on loud and the wind in my hair.
I was training very hard at this time, and after my
performance at the South African Disabled Games I was
informed that, after only eight months of athletics, I had been
chosen to represent South Africa at the Paralympics in
Athens 2004. I was terrified at the thought of competing
against some of today's sporting legends, like the Americans
Brian Frasure and Marlon Shirley – monolateral amputees
and therefore potentially much more powerful than me.
Athletics was still new to me (I had not yet learnt to use the
starting blocks
in the process. Then, following Ampie's encouragement and
advice, I decided to compete in the South African Disabled
Games. It was a first for me. Until then I had had no contact
whatsoever with the world of disabled athletics and the
experience of it made me approach my sporting career from
a completely different perspective. I found it quite an odd
experience: I felt very isolated and detached from the event,
since not only did I know no one but I was still focused on
returning to my career in rugby, and so I made little effort to
participate. I would arrive, warm up, race and immediately
leave. I did not feel that I belonged.
In truth, I had other things on my mind. I had fallen in love
for the first time and my girlfriend, Nandi, was a ball of fire.
I could not keep up with her as she kept changing her mind.
One minute she was interested in me, the next she was less
certain. She was great fun but I needed more consistency and
so decided to break up. Hot on Nandi's heels love struck for
real. It was May 2004 and along with a friend I decided to
organise a big lunch party. Each of us had to invite ten
people whom the other did not know, and he invited a girl
called Vicky. I was smitten at first sight. She was beautiful,
charming and unusual. We immediately hit it off and talked
for hours, and later that evening I met up with her at a
bonfire-night party. We were in love. As it was not long
before our annual school ball I asked her to accompany me
but unfortunately she had already agreed to attend the dance
in the company of a friend of mine. If I had not been so
disappointed it would have been amusing. Raul, the friend in
question, and I had been waxing lyrical to one another about
our new love interests who shared the name Vicky . . . Little
did we know we were talking about the same person. The
evening passed in an embarrassing blur with us staring
doe-eyed at one another, and pretty much as soon as the
midnight bell rang and the ball was over Vicky and I started
going out. We remained together for the next two years.
In the meantime Carl had finished school and went off to
work. It became almost impossible for him to keep up with
my engagements and ferry me back and forth between my
sporting commitments and training sessions, and so I decided
to buy myself a car. I had saved quite a bit of money that I
had earned by participating in a television advertisement, and
in addition I received a monthly bursary from MacSteel, the
company that produced the carbon prostheses I was using at
the time. They considered it a contribution to my sports
training. I started trawling the car dealers but fortunately
about a week into my search a friend of my father's came to
my aid, explaining that he could help me buy a car through
the company that he worked for.
And so it was that in May 2004 I bought my first car. It
was marvellous, a Smart cabriolet in black and silver; I
remember absolutely everything about it, and rather in the
same way that your first love remains special to you, so this
car will always have a place in my heart. I have many
wonderful memories of that car, but the overriding feeling it
gave me – one that remains with me to this day – was the
sense of freedom that came with owning my first car. It was
exactly as I had dreamed, and my ultimate pleasure was to
take it out at night and drive on the freeway with the music
on loud and the wind in my hair.
I was training very hard at this time, and after my
performance at the South African Disabled Games I was
informed that, after only eight months of athletics, I had been
chosen to represent South Africa at the Paralympics in
Athens 2004. I was terrified at the thought of competing
against some of today's sporting legends, like the Americans
Brian Frasure and Marlon Shirley – monolateral amputees
and therefore potentially much more powerful than me.
Athletics was still new to me (I had not yet learnt to use the
starting blocks
Similar Books
