THE film star Tom Hanks, who jogged across America as Forrest Gump, is bidding for the rights to the extraordinary story of Oscar Pistorius, a disabled athlete who leaves able-bodied runners in the dust.

Despite having had both legs amputated below the knee when he was a baby, Pistorius, 20, is a contender to become the first disabled athlete to qualify for the Olympic Games - if he can overcome formidable sporting and bureaucratic hurdles.

This weekend officials from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) were meeting in Monaco to discuss whether his carbon-fibre feet, known as Cheetahs, should be regarded as illicit performance enhancers or merely the equivalent of running shoes.

If they approve the false feet and if Pistorius can break his own records in time for next year’s Beijing Games - big “ifs”, say the sceptics - the runner dubbed as “the fastest thing on no legs” will blur the distinction between able-bodied and disabled.

Hanks wants to produce a film through his Playtone company. “This is a classic story of spirit standing against both fate and bureaucracy,” said a business associate last week. “There are similarities to Forrest Gump, where Hanks was a runner and his buddy struggled after losing both his legs in Vietnam. But this is a story no one could invent, not even here in Hollywood.”

In South Africa the blond runner already enjoys celebrity, mobbed by young women at athletics events and wooed by corporate sponsors. He was born in Pretoria, the son of a zinc mine owner, with only four toes and lacking crucial bones in his lower limbs. His parents, Henke and Sheila, consulted surgeons but eventually made the agonising decision to have their baby’s legs amputated below the knees, leaving him to learn to walk on a pair of fibreglass “milk bottles” that locked on to his stumps.

At school Pistorius became a renowned water polo and rugby player, but four years ago a knee injury knocked him out of contact sports and he decided to focus on running. “I will make it to the Olympic Games - why not?” he vowed.

In the international arena, Pistorius soon proved controversial. When he shattered records at the 2004 Athens Paralympics, his American rival Marlon Shirley, a single amputee, said the South African’s double amputation gave him a “locomotive advantage” because he has a smoother running action.

Others suggest his Cheetah “blades”, whose tips flex like toes, give him an unfairly long stride. But according to his managers, Pistorius generates all the energy from his body. “They are just like extremely bouncy running shoes,” said a trainer last week. “They do not give him extra energy.”

Experts say it will be tough knocking two seconds off his 47sec time for the 400m event. Ampie Louw, his coach, says he has improved his time by 4sec since Athens and is training to put on the muscle that marks out able-bodied stars.

Pistorius says he wants to live like anyone else. At Pretoria University, where he studies business management and trains, he drives a hatchback and refuses to use disabled parking spaces. “I’m not disabled - I just don’t have any legs, but that’s not going to stop me going for gold in Beijing,” he said. “It’s sad that people see themselves as disabled because they lack one thing, maybe a leg, when they have millions of other abilities. I do not miss my legs, but I would miss out on this opportunity if I do not get to Beijing.”

Nick Davies, a spokesman for the IAAF, said: “We don’t want to be seen as prejudiced against any athlete; on the other hand, when does the use of prosthetics become unfair? We don’t want superhumans.”

If the IAAF rules against Pistorius, disabled athletes queuing up behind him will be ready to challenge it. “If Oscar is locked out, there will be great unhappiness among the disabled and many will be speaking to their lawyers. Technology can compensate a little for the lottery of genetics or accidents - all we want is a chance to compete on equal terms,” said an executive at the US International Council on Disabilities.

Professor Steven Taylor, a disability expert at Syracuse University, New York, said that prosthetics are “all about creating a level playing field”.

“To what degree is Oscar’s extraordinary performance down to his innate talent and how much is explained by the mind-boggling technology?” he asked. “There is no clear answer to this, which shows how artificial such divisions are becoming for many in the new century.”

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