Pistorius: Sprinting into his own Shakespearean Tragedy

Perhaps you've heard of Oscar Pistorius, the South African runner? Currently, he's infamous for shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

Steenkamp and Pistorius

Last summer, he was famous for being the first double-amputee to compete in the Olympics.

Prior to that, he was known for creating a worldwide discussion about the advantages and disadvantages held by athletes who are forced, usually by tragic circumstances, to use prosthetics in order to compete.

Pistorius

And it is an interesting question, in these times of ever-evolving polymers and metal alloys. Technology has finally given us the ability to enhance athletic performance in the physically challenged and has also blurred the line between able-bodied and para-competitions. So should all athletes, regardless of race, religion, country, gender, or number of limbs be allowed to compete in the same contests?

Ok, I'm not actually going to answer that because I'm not sure either.

Anyway, back to Pistorius.

In an article written for ABCnew.com by Bazi Kanani, I found this quote from his father quite telling:

Pistorius' father was quoted overnight in the South African paper The Sunday Times saying his countrymen are destroying a national icon.

"There is something fundamentally wrong with our society," Henke Pistorius said. "We build people up into heroes, who overcome immense challenges, only to take great glee in breaking them down."

Isn't that the truth? As consumers of sports, we build up these national icons, adore them, idolize them, aspire to be them, support them with our hard-earned dollars...then, when they turn out to be human after all, we delight in the next act in the show: the downfall.

Much like a Shakespearean Tragedy, our protagonists (athletes) are faced with a paradox -- how far will they go to maintain their status, and will hubris eventually ruin them? Is it possible to stay "on top" without sacrificing integrity?

Shakespeare: the man who understood  men

Unfortunately, Pistorius is the next installment of Shakespeare meets 21st Century Celebrithetes. Whether or not he's guilty of murder isn't the point today. The point is that Pistorius has, indeed, been crowned and then dethroned.

It's a story that has played out for centuries and will play out for centuries more, or for at least as long as we make heroes out of mortals and, even more quickly, make mortals out of heroes.