Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Naturally, I would like to congratulate all the winners of the Australian medals and say how well our Australian team did. However, at the end of the day, the true Olympic spirit is not about winning, nor is it about medal tallies. The Olympic Games Charter states that the Olympics are:

… a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.

The charter continues:

The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

Therefore, for me the true inspiration that embodies the ideal and the meaning behind the Olympic charter is not that of Usain Bolt, nor Michael Phelps, nor Sally Pearson, nor any of the other Australian games winners. For me the true inspiration that embodies the ideal behind the meaning of the Olympic charter at the summer 2012 Olympic Games is Oscar Pistorius, the blade runner, the man who became the first amputee runner to compete at the Olympic Games next to able-bodied athletes.

Oscar Pistorius was born on 22 November 1986 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a congenital absence of the fibula in both legs. When he was just 11 months old both his legs were amputated halfway between his knees and his ankles. Pistorius credits his late mother, who died at the age of 42 when he was just 15 years old, as a major influence on his life. Before his mother died she wrote him a letter, just before the amputation of his lower legs when he was only 11 months old, for him to read later in life as an adult. The letter stated, and these are words that we should all learn from: 'The real loser is never the person who crosses the finishing line last. The real loser is the person who sits on the side, the person who does not even try to compete.'

For Pistorius, his Olympic appearance was the culmination of years of fighting just to compete. Pistorius not only had to overcome the disability of having both legs amputated; he also had to fight the bureaucracy of the International Association of Athletics Federations to have the simple right to compete against able-bodied athletes. In 2007 the International Association of Athletics Federations banned Pistorius from competing in able-bodied competitions. But Pistorius did not take no for an answer and he pursued them all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, simply seeking the opportunity to compete.

For any able-bodied person who has played any sport, the notion that a man without legs could have some type of advantage over his able-bodied rivals to compete is an affront to our common sense. A man without legs does not have the muscles to explode out of the starting block at the same rate as other runners, and a man without legs cannot lean forward and run aerodynamically, as other runners can, due to the fact that his artificial legs force him to stand more upright. But thankfully common sense prevailed and Pistorius was successful in his appeal. He won his legal battle against the sport's ruling body in 2008, after the court of arbitration ruled his carbon fibre blades did not give him any unfair advantage.

Pistorius is quoted as saying of his legal battle for the simple right to compete:

My focus throughout this appeal has been to ensure that disabled athletes be given the chance to compete and compete fairly with able-bodied athletes.

Having won that battle, Pistorius's next battle was to train, to try and achieve the qualification standard for the games and be selected for the South African team. History shows he was successful in that.

For the record, Pistorius competed in the 2012 London Olympics and in the first heat of the 400 metres he finished second with a time of 45.44 seconds, his personal best for the season, and advanced to the semifinals. In the semifinals he finished eighth and last. He was also a member of the South African four by 400 metres relay team, an event in which he eventually finished eighth out of a field of nine in the final on 10 August, with Pistorius running the final leg in 45.9 seconds.

Although Pistorius did not even look like winning a medal, he achieved something far, far more important. He lifted the aspirations of tens of thousands of disabled sportsmen, and that is enough to assure him his place in Olympic history. His continued advocacy for disabled people by setting the example and showing that anything is possible will no doubt help inspire children that through sheer grit and determination they can turn any disadvantage into an opportunity. But his message is also for us all. When we are faced with any adversity, through hard work, sheer grit and determination we can overcome significant odds. To the extent that the Olympics are about showing the world what a human being is capable of and that as humans we will not accept limits, that extraordinary athlete Oscar Pistorius was the true giant of the London Olympics.

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