Oscar Pistorius has made the 2008 TIME 100, an annual list of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. Pistorius, a record-setting bilateral amputee sprinter, has been engaged in a dispute about the use of his prosthetic running legs and was recently barred from competition against able-bodied athletes and, thus, the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Pistorius is currently appealing the decision. Ossur, which manufactures the Cheetah Flex-Feet used by Pistorius, said the sprinter "may very well change the history of sport because of his resolve and determination to compete on equal ground and without apologies against able-bodied athletes." Pistorius is in good company on the 2008 TIME 100 list. The magazine has said that this is not a list of the hottest, most popular or most powerful people, but rather the most influential, stating: "Influence is hard to measure, and what we look for is people whose ideas, whose example, whose talent, whose discoveries transform the world we live in. Influence is less about the hard power of force than the soft power of ideas and example." Pistorius, who is listed in the "Heroes & Pioneers" category, joins the likes of the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Vladimir Putin, and Al Gore on the list.
