He had become a curiosity and was in danger of becoming a sporting sideshow, but Oscar Pistorius, whose lower legs were amputated as a child, was finally cleared yesterday to compete at the Beijing Olympics against the fastest men in the world.

A ban on Pistorius, 21, competing against able-bodied athletes, because it was feared that he might gain an advantage from running on his carbon-fibre blades, was thrown out by an historic legal decision that marked the end of a long quest for acceptance by the South African.

The IAAF, the governing body for world athletics, had even changed the rules last year, producing new competition regulations banning any athlete using “technical devices that incorporate springs or wheels”.

Most athletes would have given up and remained content with performing in the Paralympics. Not Pistorius, who challenged the athletics establishment all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, which yesterday overturned the ban.

“I hope that it silences many of the crazy theories that have been circulating in recent months about my having an unfair advantage,” Pistorius said. “My focus throughout has been to ensure that disabled athletes be given the chance to compete fairly with able-bodied athletes.”

One problem remains – Pistorius has not yet set a qualifying time in the 400 metres that would guarantee his selection by the South African team for the Games in August. He could, however, run in the relay without achieving a set time.

He says that he wants to run the Olympic standard of 45.55 seconds and race organisers are queuing up to turn him into an attraction who could yield appearance fees of up to £20,000.

An invitation has already gone out for the Rome Golden League meeting in July, which attracts the world’s best athletes. British athletics fans will get their chance to see Pistorius after Fast Track, which stages meetings on behalf of UK Athletics, issued an invitation.

In a relatively brief career, Pistorius has engaged experts and fans as one of the most charismatic emerging athletes. He has triumphed over the adversity of being born with no fibulas, which led to the amputations below the knee as a baby. By the age of 11 he was playing rugby for the Pretoria Boys’ High School as well as water polo, tennis and wrestling. It was not until 2004 that he took up running but he immediately made his impact, winning gold in the 200 metres sprint at the Paralympics in Athens.

A year later, he was competing against able-bodied athletes in South Africa. But his artificial legs were regarded with deep suspicion by the authorities, who questioned whether they gave him an advantage. The prosthetics, called the Cheetah Flex-Foot, were said to allow Pistorius to make longer strides and use less energy. The claims were vigorously denied and rejected by the Court in Lausanne.

Pistorius does have an example to follow. His fellow South African Natalie Du Toit will compete in Beijing in the open water swimming event. But Du Toit, an established athlete when her left leg was amputated after a road accident in 2001, uses no prosthetics. Now the fastest man on Earth with no legs has the chance to become part of Olympic history as the first disabled athlete to challenge able-bodied competitors for medals, if he can be selected for Beijing. Blade Runner could yet fulfil his dream.