World's-Firster

Oscar Pistorius is a sprinter, sure, but he's also basically a professional world's-firster. Last year he became the world's first amputee to run in the World Championships, and Pistorius, whose legs were both amputated below the knee at less than a year old, will become the first amputee to run in the Olympic Games this summer in London. (He'll also be competing in the Paralympic Games--another world's first.)

Pistorius will be competing for his native South Africa in both the 400m sprint and the 4x400m relay, after a grueling qualification year in which his times hovered right around the 45.3-second mark, the qualifying line.