Oscar joins new club

22 October 2014 - 02:17 By Shaun Smillie
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NOWHERE TO RUN: Oscar Pistorius leaves the Pretoria High Court after the final day of sentencing yesterday. The athlete was sent to jail for five years
NOWHERE TO RUN: Oscar Pistorius leaves the Pretoria High Court after the final day of sentencing yesterday. The athlete was sent to jail for five years
Image: Alon Skuy

Oscar Pistorius has joined a unique club of jailbird sportsmen.

That club includes former boxer Mike Tyson, American footballer and convicted dog fighter Michael Vick and English footballer and rapist Ched Evans.

Tyson resumed his boxing career after three years in jail and Vick plays for the New York Jets.

Pistorius was likely to spend as little as 10 months in jail, not a long time, said high performance sports consultant Ross Tucker, when you consider a basic doping ban is two years and injured rugby players often sit out a year on the bench.

"But the issue is," said Tucker, "will the sport want him back."

Sports fans can be forgiving, but then there has never been a case like Oscar's.

Yesterday, the International Paralympic Committee slapped a five-year ban on Pistorius, preventing him from competing. This is in accordance with his full sentence, and can only change under a judicial appeal.

He is likely to miss the Rio Paralympics in 2016. The next Paralympics he would be allowed to compete in is Tokyo 2020. Pistorius will be 34.

"He will be past his prime," said Tucker. "The fall of Oscar is bigger than any other sportsman."

Tucker said it would be interesting to see if other athletics organisations would follow the IPC and ban Pistorius.

There is also another issue once Pistorius is out of jail and that is travel. When Tyson last year tried to enter the UK on a book tour, he was turned away.

Changes to immigration laws mean that anyone sentenced to more than four years in jail can be barred. Entry into the US is just as difficult.

A crime for "moral turpitude", under which culpable homicide falls, is grounds for non-entry, according to the US state website.

There is always the option of using prison time to write a book, and the rumour is that Pistorius is doing that. But, as with everything else, there is a downside - he will be legally prevented from making any money from a book that is connected to the death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

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