Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius (; Afrikaans: [pisˈtɔrjus]; born 22 November 1986) is a South African former professional sprinter who was convicted of murder in 2015. He was born missing the outside of both feet and both fibulae. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old due to this congenital defect. Pistorius ran in both non-disabled sprint events and in sprint events for below-knee amputees. He was the tenth athlete to compete at both the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games.
After becoming a Paralympic champion, Pistorius attempted to enter non-disabled international competitions, over persistent objections by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and arguments that his artificial limbs gave an unfair advantage. Pistorius prevailed in this legal dispute. At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, Pistorius was the first amputee to win a non-disabled world track medal. At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, Pistorius was the first double-leg amputee participant.
On 14 February 2013, Pistorius shot and killed his girlfriend, paralegal and model Reeva Steenkamp, in his Pretoria home. He claimed he had mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder hiding in the bathroom. He was arrested and charged with murder. At his trial the following year, Pistorius was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of culpable homicide. He received a five-year prison sentence for culpable homicide and a concurrent three-year suspended sentence for a separate reckless endangerment conviction.Pistorius was temporarily released on house arrest in 2015 while the case was presented on appeal to a panel at the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, which overturned the culpable homicide verdict and convicted him of murder. In July 2015, Judge Thokozile Masipa extended Pistorius' sentence to six years. On appeal by the state for a longer prison sentence, the Supreme Court of Appeal increased the prison term to 13 years and five months.. His sentence has since been increased to 15 years as of November 2017. Pistorius will be eligible for parole in 2023.
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