Oscar Pistorius near Udine!

South African Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was honored on August 22, 2012 in the small northern Italian town of Gemona with a large mural.

For two seasons now Pistorius, aka Oscar “Blade Runner” Pistorius, has been training in Gemona, not only for the recent London Games but also for the upcoming Para-Olympic Games in the same city.

The mural bears the image of other athletes, including Pistorius, as Gemona has become a rather important sports center in the local area.  The venue is also rather symbolic, not only for the “renaissance” of someone like Pistorius and the hardships he’s had to face to get where he is now but also because Gemona itself went through its own “renaissance” many years ago: in 1976 it was the site of a devastating earthquake which struck the town and surrounding area twice, in May and again in September, killing along the way more than 1,000 people.  The reconstruction of the local area has become a model for other earthquake zones in Italy, such as the recent one in Emilia-Romagna.  

A “Phoenix” on the rise for both Oscar and Gemona!