Oscar Pistorius is on the cusp of a paradigm shift in which disability becomes ability, disadvantage becomes advantage. Yet we mustn't lose sight of what makes an athlete great. It's too easy to credit Pistorius' success to technology. Through birth or circumstance, some are given certain gifts, but it's what one does with those gifts, the hours devoted to training, the desire to be the best, that is at the true heart of a champion.

When you're competing, you don't have the choice of what the weather will be like. It really doesn't affect me. I ran one of my fastest times in the New York Diamond League meeting last year. It was raining pretty hard then.

It's impossible to make everyone happy. Some will choose to see the negative. None is perfect but find a way of loving them perfectly!

I've been followed home late at night. I've been shot at on the highway.

I don't see myself as disabled. There's nothing I can't do that able-bodied athletes can do.

I'd like to show people that if you put the hard work in and you believe in yourself, then you can do whatever you want to.

I can have my goals, and I can have my dreams. My goal is to make the finals and improve my position. I want to run all decent races. I don't want to look back and say I ran a terrible race.