Blade runner says Britain tops in supporting Paralympians

From The Telegraph in the UK:

South African ‘blade runner’ Oscar Pistorius, the fastest man on no legs, lauded on Saturday the system in Great Britain for Paralympic athletes, insisting that “no country in the world supports Paralymians” like Britain does.

Glowing testimony indeed from the 22-year-old athlete, born without fibulae in both legs, who runs on prosthetic limbs and has no less ambition than to be the fastest man at both the Paralympic and Olympic Games as a sprinter. In Beijing he took three golds.

If Usain Bolt is the Golden Boy of the Olympics, then Pistorius is platinum for the Paralympics.

Pistorius made his comments on the eve of the BT Paralympic World Cup, starting in Manchester on Wednesday, where it being held for a fifth successive year, involving over 400 hundred athletes from 31 countries over six days of competition in the sports of swimming, wheelchair basketball, cycling and athletics.

He said: “One of the strongest points about competing here there is no country in the world that supports the Paralympians like Great Britain, pushing them to succeed.

"It makes a big difference. I was speaking with Seb Coe at sports conference in Monaco recently, and he is so aware that London 2012 is not only about the Olympics but it is also about the Paralympics. What we need to do is to make both very special, and I think there is the gathering belief that the London Paralympics will be very special indeed.”

The BT Paralympic World Cup is the largest multi-sport event outside the Paralympic Games, and brings together a host of the biggest names including British wheelchair athlete David Weir, the double Paralympic gold medallist, the GB cycling team who between them won 17 gold medals in Beijing, multiple Paralympic gold medal swimmers Natalie Du Toit, of South Africa, and GB’s David Roberts, with teenage sensation Eleanor Simmonds all in action.

Pistorius explained: “The BT Paralympic World Cup is the elite of the elite competing against each other, and has a severalfold purpose for all the athletes. We don’t get too many major events between Games, and this is the opportunity, every year, to compete at the highest level, get a good look at your competitors and see where they are making progress, and also to have a look at some of the new guys coming onto the blocks.”

“It really is special to compete in Britain. I’ve had most of my races to date in Britain or Italy. I’ve been invited a few times to compete in able-bodied events and at the Paralympic World Cup, and to come here feels very similar to being in South Africa. Italy have adopted me, but so too Britain. It’s like having second homes.”