The meteoric rise of Oscar 'Blade Runner' Pistorius, the world's most famous Paralympian Both his legs were amputated below the knee when he was 11-months old Success is attributed to fact he was always treated as a "normal little boy" Teacher used to fear he would fall when he ran down the school's stairs His legs came off when tackled at rugby but he carried on running over line He was arrested after reportedly shooting his girlfriend dead this morning Pistorius was born without fibulas, the outer of the bones that run between the knee and the ankle Oscar Pistorius, the world's most famous paralympian and the first to compete in the able-bodied Olympics, was born 26 years ago into a prominent family in Pretoria without fibulas, the outer of the bones that run between the knee and the ankle. His parents, Sheila and Henke, grappled with information, complied with doctors" advice, and at 11 months his legs were amputated below the knee. "It was a hugely emotional decision," said Dr Gerry Versfeld, the orthopaedic surgeon who performed the operation. "It is easier now to convince somebody the right way to go is amputation because Oscar Pistorius is an icon you can point to and say, "Look, this is possible."" Much of his success is attributed to the fact he was always treated as a "normal little boy." By the time he arrived at Constantina Kloof Primary School aged five, Pistorius had been walking on his rigid glass fibre prosthetic legs for almost four years. Usually he ran. One of Pistorius's first memories is hurtling down a hill on a go-kart with his brother, Carl, who then decided to use one of Oscar's prostheses as an impromptu brake to stop them crashing. "My brother was like my hero when I was growing up," said Pistorius. He's a year and a bit older. We're still very close. We stayed on a plot that was near an informal settlement, like a township, and we used to go and play football with the kids there and we used to have so much fun. We would build tree houses in the holiday and we had motorbikes on a track in our garden. It's nice to have someone who pushes you to do things. You're always trying to compete with him. Oscar Pistorius was in high school when he showed up at Jannie Brooks's garage gym in Pretoria, South Africa, with a group of friends looking to get fitter. He boxed, skipped and did press-ups until he threw up. It was six months before Brooks realised he had no legs. "He was just one of the bunch, doing everything at the same pace as everybody else," he said. Oscar Pistorius after winning his gold medal at the Paralympic games in 2012. He is the world's most famous Paralympian and first to compete in able-bodied Olympics It's a dog's life: Pistorius at his house in Pretoria with his dogs Enzo (right) and Silo (left) "Between the classroom and the fields there were two sets of stairs," said Tessa Shellard, who taught Pistorius maths and PE. I used to cringe because he would always run down. I closed my eyes waiting for him to fall. But he never did. His legs would chafe and give him enormous blisters on his stumps but he did rugby, cricket, football and absolutely everything else. He wasn't quick at all because of his heavy legs but in inter-house athletics, Oscar would do the sprints every year knowing full well he would come last. His can-do attitude made him popular with classmates. During annual triathlons, one friend would carry him on his back while carrying his legs. When it came to the swimming, he threw his legs on to the side of the pool and dived straight in. At cycling, he would do 20km stretches as a 12-year-old without complaint. Hugh Herr, director of the Biomechatronics Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a close friend of Pistorius, said his quick cycling is because his hips are a "huge engine." This also allows him to reposition his limbs quicker and complete the 400m, his favoured event, in a personal best of 45.07sec, a time never thought possible for an amputee. At 13, Pistorius began boarding at Pretoria Boys School. "During the admissions interview I had concerns about how a legless boy would fare with the rough and tumble of a school of 1500 teenagers," said Bill Shroeder, headteacher of the school until 2009. "All his mother could say was, "Of course he'll cope." That was how she brought him up - to be completely normal. Walking on the wild side: Pistorius squares up to Anthony the cheetah Pistorius went down in school folklore when, during a rugby match, a player from the opposite team tackled him. "His legs came off in the boy's arms," said Shroeder. But he carried on running over the line, I think the other kid still has nightmares. Pistorius threw himself into sport following his mother's death when he was 15, but suffered a knee injury playing rugby in 2003. He did athletics as a form of rehab at the University of Pretoria. Less than a year later, he lit up the Athens Paralympics aged 17, winning gold in the 200m and bronze in the 100m in the T44 class, which also includes single below-the-knee amputees. "Within months he was an icon," said Shroeder. My biggest challenge was keeping a teenager who was the envy of every kid on the straight and narrow. Books and memorabilia of heroes from Nelson Mandela to Iron Mike Tyson, from Sir Bobby Charlton to Valentino Rossi, now fill the shelves and walls of his Pretoria home where he reportedly shot his girlfriend at 4am this morning. His sporting trophies, including the first award he won as a 12-year-old wrestler and that famous TV camera that marks him out as a recipient of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award for remarkable courage in the face of adversity, take up the space next to the whisky cabinet and pictures of his racehorses. Pistorius, once voted South Africa's sexiest celebrity now earns more than £1m a year in deals to promote everything from perfume to groceries and telecommunications. Political enthusiast: Pistorius is a keen reader