South Africa at the 2012 Summer Olympics
South Africa competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's eighteenth participation overall and sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics in the post-apartheid era. The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) sent a total of 125 athletes to the Games, 67 men and 58 women, to compete in 17 sports. Field hockey and women's football were the only team-based sports in which South Africa were representation at these Olympic Games. There was only a single competitor in archery, BMX cycling, judo, shooting and weightlifting.
Lusapho April in men's marathon
Oscar Pistorius becomes the first double leg amputee to compete at the Olympics.
Burry Stander
Philip Buys
Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius is a South African former professional sprinter and convicted murderer. Both of his feet were amputated when he was 11 months old as a result of a congenital defect; he was born missing the outside of both feet and both fibulae. Pistorius ran in both nondisabled sprint events and in sprint events for below-knee amputees. He was the 10th athlete to compete at both the Paralympic Games and Olympic Games.
Pistorius in 2011
Pistorius taking part in the Landsmót ungmennafélags Íslands in Kópavogur, Iceland, in July 2007
Pistorius in his prostheses at an International Paralympic Day event in Trafalgar Square, London, on 8 September 2011
The South African newspaper The Citizen announcing the IAAF's decision to ban Pistorius from its competitions – photographed in Johannesburg on 16 January 2008