African Sports Monthly January 2013 Issue | Page 34

Bolt won the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relays in London and at the 2008 Beijing Olympic games.
He declared himself a legend in London after successfully defending his titles.
The human story of the games saw Oscar Pistorious
Oscar Pistorious
become the first double-amputee to participate in the
Olympics against able bodied athletes when he ran
the 400m and 4x400m relay for South Africa. He however would go on to also compete at the Paralympic
games where he created some controversy after he
lost to Brazilian Alan Oliveira in the 200m Paralympic
final, he complained of how Oliveira’s blades were too
long and gave him an edge. The controversy brought
to the fore the issue of his blades which some said
gave him an advantage over able-bodied athletes.
Anyhow controversy aside he did win the Paralympic T44 400m race and T42-T46 4x100m after a
disappointing silver in the T44 200m.
Tirunesh Dibaba the Queen of middle distance running was able to repeat in London winning the
10000m Olympic gold, but fell short in the 5000 where she only managed to snag the bronze medal
in an event in which she holds the world record failing to defend her Beijing title.
Dibaba was extremely happy with her performances, because she was only returning to active competition after a prolonged absence of over 16 months due to injury. She became the first woman to
win back-to-back 10000m Olympic titles.
Vivian Cheruiyot was another double medallist, but after winning two gold medals in the 2011 IAAF
World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Ko &V