The ceremony was held on Monday 6 February 2012 in London.

The Laureus Awards celebrate sporting personalities and teams for their performances in the previous year (in this case for 2011).

Pistorius was recognised for becoming the first amputee to win a track medal in the non-disabled World Championships. He won a silver medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay in South Korea.

Pistorius is also known as the 'Blade Runner due to the carbon fibre blades attached to his legs.

He was a Paralympics gold medalist in 2008.

Read more about the 2012 Laureus Awards including other award winners over on the SA Good News website.

About Oscar Pistorius

Oscar Pistorius was born to Henke and Sheila Pistorius on 22nd November 1986. This would have been a fairly ordinary affair except that Oscar Pistorius was born with a rare deformity of the legs – his feet contains only two toes, the heel bone and a bone to connect the toes and the heel together.

Henke and Sheila Pistorius made the heartwrenching decision to amputate Oscar’s legs below the knee. The surgeon would attach his heel bones to his knees so that they would form stumps for Oscar to move around.

Until the age of 16, there were no signs that Oscar was going to be a dominant force in Athletics. Ironically, as Oscar would say, he would try all sports when he can except Athletics, and his favorite sport was Rugby. Oscar was told by his team mates and coach that if he were to regain fitness for the coming Rugby season, he would have to take up Athletics.

He would test out a new type of carbon fiber prosthetic legs created by Ossur for his athletic endeavors. And from then on, there was no looking back.

(Information & image source - Sporting Zen - full article here)