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Watch Paralympian ‘Bladerunner’ Oscar Pistorius Outrun a Horse In a Foot Race!

Dec. 13, 2012 9:09am Mike Opelka

Remember Oscar Pistorius? Oscar is the double-amputee who qualified for, and competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. While the intrepid athlete did not win a medal at the regular Olympics, he did score two gold medals in the Paralympics that followed.

Watch Paralympian Bladerunner Oscar Pistorius Outrun a Horse In a Foot Race!

Image: AP

On Wednesday, Pistorius took his campaign for awareness of disabled athletes to a new level as he raced against a horse in Doha, Qatar.

The UK Telegraph was there to cover the event.

The 26 year-old sprinter was in Doha for the ‘Definitely Able’ campaign which uses special events to highlight the exceptional feats Paralympic athletes are capable of.

This video shows the entire race and features a brief interview with Pistorius after the race:

While Pistorius was successful in his race against a horse, he was not the first olympic athlete to attempt a stunt like this. We found some other examples of “Man vs. Beast.”

After turning pro following his success in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, American Jesse Owens raced a horse in Cuba – and won! (He had a little head start)

In 2003, a short-lived show on the Fox Network had Olympic gold medal winner Shawn Crawford face off against a giraffe and a zebra with mixed results.

The show also featured a bizarre contest between and elephant and 44 “little people.” The challenge; to pull a DC-10 jet 75 feet.

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Comments (19)

Thornyrose13
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 7:09pm
Actually, it’s all physics and acceleration. At 100 yards, a human can beat a horse, even a quarterhorse. The human accerates quicker, and reaches maximum velocity faster. But the horse has a much higher speed, and once it reaches that max speed, the race is over. In this case, I wonder if the horse was used to starting from a standing start rather than breaking from a gate. It was also probably balking at seeing the human in the other lane racing off. Certainly the few seconds it took to straighten the horse and get it moving made a massive difference. Were they to rerun it, I would bet man wins, but the horse passes him within 15 yards after the finish line.

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Dano.50
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 6:19pm
R and K stop with the s.p.c.a. line.

Horses kick and bite each other all the time for pecking order.

A jockey using a quirt isn’t going to amount to squat.

As a side note I used to rodeo we challenged man against horse quite a few times. Used to clean up pretty good sometimes cause everybody thinks the horse has it cinched, but in the short stretch it’s all about acceleration.

Between man and horse, that horse has to be just as good against other horses, as a man is against other men.

Part of the runner’s big lead was due to the horse terrible start, but even if it had been perfect if the horse was only in, say the top 10% of it’s kind, and the man was top 5% or 1%, I’d bet on the man every time.

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R and K
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 3:01pm
The horse may have done better had the rider not been beating him every step. Such exaggerated, and instant from the first step, beating makes me wonder if they knew the horse would refuse to run if he was getting whipped. Horses can tend to take offense at that kind of treatment.

People can’t out run horses, period. Here are some times from Quarterhorse racing.

220 yards/11.62 seconds
300 yards/14.91 seconds
440 yards/20.94 seconds

Arabs are slower than Quarterhorses, but not slow enough to get out run by a human. Ponies win.

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- txannie
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 4:32pm
  “Fanning” the horse is like a deer fly biting the horse. Their hide is thick enough you would need a cat-o’nine-tails to break the skin. The difference is the horse isn’t a quarter horse. The acceleration of a quarter horse is what gives them their name. No breed other than the American Mustang, much of which have the same blood as the quarter horse has, has such an ability to accelerate to top speed in that quarter mile. If that horse didn’t care for the “beating” he is receiving, believe me, he would let the rider know. They are intelligent and gentle to a fault. I don’t like to use a bat, but sometimes you run across a lazy horse that needs urging, that’s all they are doing. They are not hurting the horse.
  
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- txannie
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 4:36pm
  By the way….that guy is awesome. Going through what he has and being able to do what he does…awesome.
  
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LewisLorenz
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 2:51pm
It’s not a ‘foot’ race if there are no feet.

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YAHSHUARULES
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 1:40pm
That was all well and good, but there is another race going on and those that love this country are about to lose it; there is an enemy within working to corrupt America and drive us in a direction designed to destroy us. If America goes down the whole free world will go down with it and it will be finished for a very, very long time. It won’t just affect your children and grandchildren, the physical cliff is nothing compared to the…
This is the most comprehensive, best movie I have seen pulling all this together. Watch it. Share it.
Its free on line at the momment
https://vimeo.com/52009124
if that is not working try this: https://vimeo.com/16647512

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RestoreCapitalism
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 12:16pm
I looks like they have invented something pretty interesting here. The running devices he is using could seemingly be produced for anyone to use, with some practice, and you have something that would probably sell well in the sporting goods industry.

Just my capitalist thoughts.

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calmglass
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 11:12am
Not trying to take away from this guy as a person and athlete, but come on. That wasn’t a real race. First of all, the horse barely knew what was going on at first. Second, by the time the horse was in the race, he was already going full speed down hill.

Anyway, it was a gimmick.

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- AndySchmandy
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 12:50pm
  I agree, seems like the footage of the horse grazing was edited out around the 5second mark. I’d like to see the whole race. Am I wrong for thinking that!?
  
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Zipit
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 10:40am
Ya gotta admit! The guy is awesome!!! He is a great story, and an inspiration.

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weareskrewed
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 10:31am
Uh….. how was either of the horse vs human races a head to head race ? Pistorius had at least a 5 second head start and the horse was freaking out thanks to being stuck in between those rails. Owens had a 40 yard head start and like the announcer said “So What ???” Neither jockey seemed to be pushing their animal to go faster.

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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 10:22am
He didn’t beat that horse….

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AZgirl9000
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 9:44am
Looks like somebody forgot to explain to the horse what was going on. Let’s try it again with a standard starting gate on a horseracing track. I notice he didn’t try it against a Greyhound. Those puppies have incredible acceleration out of the gate.

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- Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 9:57am
  Indeed, and that would be a race worth seeing.
  
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- briten821
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 1:08pm
  AZGIRL9000- “I noticed he didn’t try it against a greyhound…”
  
  You’re correct! He didn’t try it against a cheetah either, or a Formula 1 car, or an F-16…
  
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OldSurfRat
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 9:32am
Never say never!!!

You cant keep a good man down.

This goes back to my point about the high scoring girls basketball game. NEVER EVER give up!!

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DimmuBorgir
Posted on December 13, 2012 at 9:26am
exactly why they shouldn’t be allowed to compete against able bodied runners. carl lewis agrees.

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- searcher619
  Posted on December 13, 2012 at 3:57pm
  The horse could have beaten him easily. the jockeys weren’t pushing the horses to run full out as they normally would.
  
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