One Tragic Night (17 page)

British media were saturated with coverage of Oscar's comments and much of it was negative, with critics questioning his eruption in the face of a rare loss.
The morning after the race, Oscar published an apology – he was not sorry for what he said, but rather for the timing of his comments.

‘I would never want to detract from another athlete's moment of triumph and I want to apologise for the timing of my comments after yesterday's race. I do believe that there is an issue here and I welcome the opportunity to discuss with the IPC but I accept that raising these concerns immediately as I stepped off the track was wrong. That was Alan's moment and I would like to put on record the respect I have for him. I am a proud Paralympian and believe in the fairness of sport. I am happy to work with the IPC who obviously share these aims.'

Oscar also tweeted his congratulations to Oliveira and thanked the crowd for their support:

But a degree of damage had been done to Oscar's poster-boy image and a seed of doubt about his character had been planted in the minds of some.

‘Pistorius had never lost a 200 metres race before, and he could not believe that it had happened. Modest as he may seem – at the start line he responded to the adoring applause of the 80 000 with a polite little bow – he has, like any champion, a sizeable temper and an ego to match,' wrote Andy Bull in
The Guardian
about the incident.

But Oscar was more determined than ever and wanted to reclaim his status as the premier Paralympic sprinter in the world. Motivated, he came out for the 4x100 metres relay with the South African team with the aim of not only taking the title but also breaking their own world record. Oscar anchored the team, which successfully achieved its goal, taking over seven-tenths of a second off their previous record.

The mixed zone at the Olympic Stadium in London was the one area where nothing was off the record. It's a vast area under the main grandstand, just beyond the finish line of the athletics track and where the Paralympic athletes faced the media for the first time after their competition. The mixed zone provided a more informal meeting place than an official news conference, though access was strictly controlled by team media officers, and a waist-high barrier separates journalist from athlete.

The evening of 6 September 2012 was hot and sticky, the atmosphere at the stadium even more charged than usual. The evening's penultimate race was the men's 100 metres for double- and single-leg amputees and it was won in a Games record time by one of the darlings of the British Paralympic movement, Jonnie Peacock. Oscar had finished fourth behind fellow South African and roommate Arnu Fourie.

Oscar had anticipated finishing outside the medals in this event, as he had long since stopped training for the shorter distance. It was the first time he had been in action since his criticism three days earlier of Brazilian sprinter Alan Oliveira's long running blades. The comments had cast something of a pall over the poster boy of the Paralympic Games, and Oscar knew he had to make amends.

He might have overdone his enthusiasm by saying the race was the best he had ever competed in, but his praise for Peacock and his genuine excitement for Fourie's bronze medal achievement was helping to restore his Paralympic image.

As usual that evening, Oscar was besieged by the media. He was always in high demand, but that evening the journalists were clamouring for a follow-up to the Oliveira controversy. And Oscar did not disappoint. He worked the media like the professional he had become – not turning down a single interview and making his way slowly through the various countries' TV crews, answering all their questions. Oscar always took a long time moving through the mixed zone.

While he was charming a global TV audience, Fourie – who was not in as much demand from the foreign journalists – had completed his interviews with the South African TV crews and had made his way to a group of five South African radio and print journalists.

He spoke to them excitedly about the race, and it wasn't long before some of the journalists went off to file their stories for the morning. Broadcaster David O'Sullivan was, however, keen to record an interview with both Fourie and Oscar, so O'Sullivan and Fourie remained in the mixed zone, continuing to talk while waiting for Oscar to finish his TV commitments.

O'Sullivan asked Fourie what it was like to be Oscar's roommate. He thought it was an innocuous question, aimed more at passing the time, but Fourie's response took him by surprise. Fourie let on that he had moved out of their tiny room in the Paralympic village because Oscar was always fighting with and shouting at people on the phone.

O'Sullivan was taken aback. He had expected to hear how they might motivate each other, sit and chat about their strategies – he certainly didn't expect to hear that Oscar was being distracted by fights and arguments with people on the other end of a telephone line.

Neither O'Sullivan nor Fourie pursued the conversation any further as Oscar arrived shortly afterwards and the discussion went back to the evening's earlier race. But Fourie's comment lingered with O'Sullivan and, as he travelled back to his hotel that night, he listened back to Fourie's almost throwaway remark on his recorder. It struck him as incongruous that, at the height of his fame, on his biggest stage, with so much glory beckoning, Oscar should be embroiled in arguments on the phone. Why does he allow himself to be so badly distracted? thought O'Sullivan. Surely he had bigger things to deal with?

Some 18 months later, O'Sullivan recalled the incident in an article he wrote for the
Sunday Telegraph
detailing his encounters with Pistorius over a period of almost nine years:

O'Sullivan first met Oscar in September 2004 while doing a broadcast for Talk Radio 702 to welcome home the South African Olympic swimmers who had won gold in Athens. ‘Because I have a passion for the Paralympics, I asked if Fanie Lombard could also come along so that we could throw forward to the upcoming Athens Paralympic Games. Fanie couldn't make it, and the team's media officer suggested that she bring a newcomer along for the interview instead. I thought she said his name was Oscar Pretorius, and introduced him as such in a throw-forward to his interview.

‘When he sat down during the ad break, he very politely corrected me. I didn't know what his disability was, and he pulled up his pants legs to show me his prosthetics. I remember him being a very quiet schoolboy with slight acne and braces on his teeth. He could have been mistaken for being shy, because he was quiet and unassuming, but as soon as the interview started, I realised he had confidence that belied his age. I liked him immediately.'

The broadcaster says that Oscar struck him as being very normal and humble
in the early days of his career. ‘After Oscar came back from the Paralympics with a couple of medals and world records, he started being noticed. He was in demand for motivational speaking and asked me to help him write a speech. I sat with him for a couple of days going through his family history. I heard none of the stuff that has been revealed in court. When I look back on my notes, he painted a picture of a very normal upbringing, enjoying school life, not ever experiencing disadvantages because of his disability. He told me stories that were so typical of your average Pretoria schoolboy, riding motorbikes, playing in the veld, getting up to mischief. Over the years, I watched Oscar grow in confidence and stature, but he always remained the same person towards me – unassuming, quiet, respectful.'

He saw no signs that Oscar was troubled or was destined to implode. ‘I only ever heard stories – the motorboat crash, tantrums he would throw with SABC producers. He once phoned me from Beijing just before the 2008 Paralympic Games, complaining about their training kit. But I thought he was quite justified in moaning – the kit was late and he had work to do.'

Former CNN sports broadcaster Graeme Joffe says that warning signs did begin to appear, but no one wanted to acknowledge them.

‘I met this incredible, humble kid, the drive, the positiveness. I was in awe of him. It was the real Oscar. Then, sadly over the years, I think, as fame and success and money came into his life, I saw a very different Oscar,' Joffe told a BBC television documentary in the weeks after Oscar's arrest. ‘So many incidents have happened, and they've been well documented over the last five or six years … Here, I think, you had a troubled athlete. Not so much this incredible role model for the rest of the world – no question about that – but deep down, this was a troubled athlete,' Joffe elaborated to CNN. Joffe, like many others, had noticed Oscar beginning to change over the years.

With fame and the global stage, Oscar had developed a taste for the fast life, which
The New York Times
pointed out was not an uncommon attribute of successful, competitive athletes. Writer Michael Sokolove spent time with the Blade Runner at his Pretoria home:

In his article, Sokolove wrote about Oscar's erratic and high-speed driving, as well as his appetite for risk, mentioning that at one point the car's speedometer clocked 250 km/h while the athlete was at the wheel:

Oscar's penchant for firearms and his acute awareness of his own security was clear for Sokolove:

Jonathan McEvoy from
The Daily Mail
also visited Oscar at his home in the secure Silver Woods estate and noted his jumpiness at threats to his security:

Like Sokolove, McEvoy also experienced Oscar's wild driving when he drove him to the airport in his BMW ‘fitted with all manner of go-faster gadgets' and ‘tyres screeching as he rounded corners like a man possessed'.

Months after the Valentine's Day shooting, writer Jonny Steinberg recounted another telling and little-known allegation involving Oscar and his gun in
The Guardian
newspaper: