Amputee barred from Olympics

LONDON — Track and field’s world governing body ruled on Monday that Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee sprinter from South Africa, is not be eligible to compete in Olympic qualifying events. The International Association of Athletics Federations explained in a statement that, after an independent scientific study, it deemed Pistorius’s state-of-the-art carbon fiber prosthetics “should be considered as technical aids which give him an advantage over other athletes not using them.”

Pistorius, 21, was born without fibulas and had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. But in the four years since he started competing, he has set Paralympic world records in the 100, 200 and 400 meters and it was his dream to compete in the Olympic Games.