Pistorius: From Global Icon To A Prison Cell

In his saintly prime, it was hard not to be beguiled by Oscar Pistorius.

From the waist up, the smiling South African with sparkling eyes was the very image of a world-class athlete. From the knees down he seemed almost miraculous, a model of strength over adversity on carbon-fibre blades.

Pistorius's was a remarkable story when his ambition was confined to becoming the greatest disability sportsman of his time.

Among the legion of remarkable athletes who make up the Paralympic movement however, a double amputation did not make him unusual, even if performances were unprecedented.

It was his determination to compete against able-bodied opponents that took him into a category of one. It elevated him to genuine worldwide celebrity, and allowed the Paralympic movement to follow in his slipstream.

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1. Gallery: Pistorius: A Sporting Pioneer

   Pistorius was born in Johannesburg on November 22, 1986. A congenital condition meant he had no bones in his lower legs.

2. He had both legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old, and now runs on carbon fibre prosthetic blades.

3. Pistorius won the 200m final in a record time at the 2004 Athens Paralympics. In 2006 he finished sixth in the able-bodied event in South Africa.

4. Ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled his blades did not give him an unfair advantage. But he failed to qualify for the men's 400m.

5. He won gold in all three of his events at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics - the 100m, 200m and 400m. He set a world record in the 400m (sport class T44).

6. He won the 400m in 47.28s and the 100m in 11.04s at the 2011 Paralympic World Cup. The athlete later ran the 400m in 45.07s - within the Olympic qualifying time.

7. The Blade Runner won the 400m silver medal in 45.52s at the 2012 African Championships. He just missed the 45.30s he needed to qualify for the Olympics.

8. Pistorius was selected by the South African Olympic Committee to run the 4x400m relay and 400m at the 2012 London Olympics. He said it was "one of the happiest days of my life".

9. He had been dating the model Reeva Steenkamp since late 2012. She was found dead at his home on February 14, 2013.

10. After a lengthy trail, Pistorius is cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison.

It was not a straightforward journey, and along the way he demonstrated that the single-mindedness required to overcome disability extended well beyond the track.

Pistorius repeatedly challenged the sporting authorities to allow him to run despite misgivings that his blades were not comparable, and may even confer an advantage in the gruelling late stages of a 400m race.

He was initially banned from competing but following appeals, and under significant pressure, the International Association of Athletics Federations admitted him to run first at the World Championships in 2011, and a year later at London 2012.

Video: What Would Oscar Have Seen?

That decision opened the door not just to sporting history but to a hugely lucrative career. Paralympians, by and large, do not make a good living, if they make a living at all.

As a Paralympian in Olympic sport Pistorius earned around £1.5m a year in endorsements. Track and field is a sport struggling to maintain its position, and the South African was better known than any of the men he was to compete against.

This commercial imperative meant it was often possible to detect a cynical edge to the Pistorius promotion machine. His status attracted major sponsors, British Telecom among them, and he was a model client.

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1. Gallery: Pistorius: Death, Despair And Drama

   Hooded and head down, Paralympic and Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius leaves a police station in Pretoria hours after he shot dead his model girlfriend in the bathroom of his home

2. Before Valentine's Day 2013, this is how the couple were known - handsome, glamorous and seemingly happy

3. A day after shooting Reeva, he was taken to court for a lengthy bail hearing during which he denied murdering his girlfriend. He was eventually granted conditional bail

4. Reeva's Valentine's card to Oscar was later shown in court. She had left it out for him on the night of her death, along with some pictures of the couple and one of her she'd had taken specially as a gift

5. Five days after her death, Reeva's funeral was held in her home town of Port Elizabeth

6. Reeva's family and friends comforted each other after her coffin was carried into a crematorium. After the ceremony, her brother Adam said: "There's a space missing inside all the people that she knew that can't be filled again. We will miss her."

7. Judge Thokozile Masipa presided over the trial. It should have run for three weeks, but lasted at least five months

8. Reeva's mother June Steenkamp was in court throughout proceedings, sat just feet away from the man who killed her daughter and in the same row as members of his family. Within weeks of Reeva's killing, Mrs Steenkamp said: "I don't hate Oscar. I've forgiven him. I have to, that's my religion. But I am determined to face him and reclaim my daughter."

9. Gerrie Nel, a seasoned prosecutor, is known in South African legal circles as "the pitbull". He led the prosecution against Pistorius, claiming the defence was inconsistent

10. The prosecution tried to prove the couple had problems - that Pistorius was an angry and controlling boyfriend. This email was among the evidence they used to make their point, along with a series of texts. The defence said it simply showed they were a normal couple, with normal ups and downs in their relationship

11. Barry Roux defended Pistorius. He made his presence felt at the very start of proceedings by totally dismissing a senior police officer's case, leaving the man offering an embarrassing admission that his case was weak. "I don't have any facts," said Hilton Botha. Mr Roux has since said his performance was "nothing special".

12. Sky News uncovered this CCTV image of the couple just a few days before the shooting. They were in a shop in Pretoria, kissing and laughing

13. The CCTV was among the final images taken of Reeva

14. The world gasped at pictures of the scene of the shooting obtained by Sky's Alex Crawford

15. At one point in the trial, as lawyers flicked through a series of pictures on a large screen in court, they accidentally showed a picture of Reeva's body without warning. Friends of Reeva ran from the courtroom in tears at the violent image

16. On another occasion, the prosecution taunted Pistorius, telling him to look at the image and take responsibility. Pistorius sobbed back: "As I picked Reeva up, my fingers touched her head. I don't have to look at a picture. I remember. I was there."

17. Much of the case centered on whether Pistorius was wearing his prosthetic legs at the time of the shooting. Did the bullet holes in the bathroom door prove that he was wearing them, and therefore able to move faster and with more ease? Or was he on his stumps, at a lower height and possibly feeling more threatened?

18. Sitting almost within touching distance throughout the trial, Reeva's mother and Pistorius' sister Aimee had been seen speaking to each other at times

19. The defendant retched and vomited more than once. At one point, Pistorius collapsed in the dock and his psychologist was seen trying to calm him by stroking his face

20. The trial was adjourned for a psychiatric evaluation of Pistorius. Around this time the defendant had a night out and got involved in an altercation, making headlines again

21. Following the row, Pistorius tweeted some cryptic messages. This was one

22. Lawyers went step-by-step through how Pistorius would have got out of bed in the night, walked or run down the corridor shouting at whoever was locked in the toilet, shot through the door and then, on realising it was Reeva inside, bashed down the door using a cricket bat

23. After the shooting, the door was removed from Pistorius' house and was stored in a police HQ office instead of a contamination-free zone

24. Footage emerged of Pistorius recreating the fateful night in a private attempt to make his case clear. Australia's Channel 7 got hold of the video, which described events in graphic detail, and released it while the trial was ongoing

25. Friends and family of Reeva gave various interviews to the media, talking about how the model with a law degree was also someone who cared deeply about others and wanted to help people. "She was more than just a pretty face," one said

26. The world's focus once again closed in on the court in Pretoria when the time came for Judge Thokozile Masipa to give her verdict

27. The runner's brother made it to court for the verdicts, coming out of hospital in a wheelchair. He is recovering from a head-on car crash that happened on 1 August

28. As the judge read her findings to the court on the first day of her verdict delivery, Pistorius sat in the dock and sobbed, gulping back air as he struggled not to cry out loud

29. Reeva's father Barry Steenkamp did not attend the first few weeks of the trial, but he sat through the end and closely watched the man who killed his daughter as the verdict was read out

30. He was found not guilty of premeditated murder on Thursday, 11 September 11, 2014. And the weight of the case took so long for the judge to get through that it was not until the next morning that he was told to stand to hear the verdict on culpable homicide. He stood silently, breathing deeply

31. At the end of it all, Oscar Pistorius, world-famous athlete, was found guilty of culpable homicide. A similar charge to manslaughter, it means he did shoot at someone, but the judge said he might not have known it was Reeva behind the toilet door - and she has now sentenced him to five years in prison for the killing

His press conferences in the summer of 2012 were an object lesson in how to keep media and sponsor happy. At both Olympics and Paralympics he sat for hours, answering questions he'd faced a thousand times before but betraying not a trace of impatience.

It struck me at the time that only a man of extreme faith or rare focus could have managed it. Pistorius was clearly possessed of both.

Cynicism had little answer to the climax of his career in London, when reached the semi-finals of the Olympic 400m, a bigger draw than the eventual champion Kirani James, who said it was a "privilege" to compete against him.

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1. Gallery: Oscar Pistorius At Gun Range

   Sky News has obtained images of Oscar Pistorius at a shooting range, including one which shows him firing the pistol he used when he shot his girlfriend.

2. The pictures were taken months before Reeva Steenkamp's death on February 14, 2013.

3. Pistorius, who is awaiting trial, denies murdering Ms Steenkamp and says he shot her after mistaking her for a burglar.

4. In one of the pictures from the gun range, the athlete is seen firing at a water melon.

5. The fruit explodes as Pistorius hits it right in the centre. Click through for more pictures.

The tragedy of what followed at Pistorius' home on Valentine's Day 2013 bears heaviest on the Steenkamp family, robbed of their daughter.

After the five year jail sentence handed down for that crime Pistorius is unlikely to make another podium, and has forfeited his place on a pedestal for ever.

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