'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius has an edge, all right --- his spirit

The double-amputee from South Africa is an amazing sight as he makes Olympic history in a 400-meter run to put him in the semifinals. More amazing is the heart that drives him forward.

LONDON -- Oscar Pistorius marches into Olympic Stadium with a limping gait of an old man, and the only thing you see, the only place you look, the only thing that matters, are his legs.

They are blades. Goodness, they really are blades. Their charcoal tint glistens beneath a sudden London sun. They seem to squeak around a damp mid-morning track.

He flew the legs here from South Africa in a carry-on bag. He will be delayed after his race because he is removing the legs.

When he drops into the metal starting blocks Saturday morning, becoming the first double-amputee to compete in an Olympics, his legs make it appear he's actually part of the starting blocks. When he begins running, his legs make it appear as if he is floating, and you openly swear you have never seen anything like this in your long sporting life.

But then, 400 meters later, an amazing thing happens.

The race ends, and it becomes apparent that his legs are the least important thing about Oscar Pistorius.

It's about his smile. Has there ever been someone happier to be at an Olympics? Has there ever been someone happier to be anywhere? Before the race he is shining so brightly, he says his cheeks cramped. Later, he stands in front of me and holds out his left arm.

"Look, it's an hour after the race and I still have goose bumps," he says.

It's about his spirit. He was the last of 125 South Africans added to the team. His admission into the Games had earlier even been banned by the sport's governing body, yet he fights through the emotion to qualify for the semifinals in 45.44 seconds, one of his best times this season.

"I didn't know whether to cry, I had a mixture of emotions," he says, adding later, "To sacrifice for all this, it's really mind blowing."

More than anything, it's about his heart, which has seemingly been sprinting toward this moment for nearly 25 years, since a birth defect led to his legs being amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. Running in the Olympics? He was never even supposed to stand. But his late mother Sheila never let him accept anything less.

truly inspirational

Oscar Pistorius 46,19 s !! @ IAAF World Challenge Ostrava!!! 2011