Pistorius unable to compete in IPC events

oscarpistorius

The South African athlete was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday for the culpable homicide of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013.

After the decision was revealed, Pistorius' defence team suggested he may serve just 10 months in prison before moving to house arrest.

The IPC has confirmed that Pistorius will be unable to compete in sanctioned events until 2019 meaning he will be not be allowed to participate in the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

"Once Oscar has served a five-year sentence that was handed down to him today by a judge he would be eligible to compete again in IPC sanctioned competitions," Craig Spence, director of communications for the IPC, told Perform.

"Our rules stipulate that while an athlete is serving a sentence they cannot be eligible for competition. Therefore on the basis of this morning it would be five years taking it through to 2019. 

"If the judge changes that then obviously we would change our stance accordingly. Therefore he would be ineligible to compete in the Rio Paralympic Games."

Pistorius, nicknamed 'The Blade Runner' due to the prosthetic limbs he uses to compete, is one of the most decorated Paralympians in history with six gold medals across three Paralympic Games.

However, Spence is convinced that Paralympic sports will continue to grow in stature despite the 27-year-old's absence.

"I don't think [he] will be a loss," he added. "Oscar did a lot for the Paralympic movement in Athens and Beijing and in the build-up to London 2012.

"But what London 2012 showed the world is that there is more than one Paralympian on this planet. There are a lot of athletes that have grabbed the headlines and are doing really well.

"It's not just athletics that are doing really well. Our Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi earlier this year attracted record crowds of 316,000 and we broke the two billion TV barrier for the first time.

"So the Paralympic movement is gathering at a pace regardless of what is going on in South Africa."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to reveal their stance on allowing Pistorius to compete.

A statement said: "This is human tragedy for family of Reeva Steenkamp and also for Oscar Pistorius. We hope very much that time will bring comfort but at this stage we have no further comment to make."

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