There has been widespread condemnation from within the South African Paralympic team as the fallout and conflicting reports continue to emerge from Beijing.

Speaking ahead of the Beijing Paralympic Games on Tuesday, amputee sprint star Oscar Pistorius — the world's most unique paralympian star — slammed Sascoc's management of the SA team.

The internationally-known star said athletes were yet to receive their training and competition kits.

Pistorius also claimed athletes, many of whom are on crutches and in wheelchairs, had to travel nearly two kilometres to buy refreshments because management had not handed out the necessary coupons.

Team SA's Chef de Mission, Les Williams hit back saying Sascoc wasn't obliged to provide training kit and the competition kit was being remade at the athletes' behest.

He added that Pistorius had not approached management.

But it has since emerged that Pistorius was not allowed to "speak about Sascoc" because he had signed a contract forbidding to do so, while the news coming from the SA camp simply gets worse.

Unacceptable and unprofessional

A furious Pistorius told The Star newspaper on Wednesday that the athletes had been forced to train in tracksuit pants in sweltering hot conditions because there was no official team kit for them to train in.

"It's absolutely unacceptable and unprofessional," said Pistorius.

"We've been asking them for months where the team kit is and they told us it would be here when we arrived in Beijing.

"When we got to Beijing on Sunday, they told us the kit hadn't arrived yet and would be here two days before we actually compete (on Sunday). They told us we didn't have to train in the official outfits and could use our own stuff. But none of us had brought kit because we were told it was going to be supplied, so the guys have been running around in this heat in tracksuit pants. That means we will have been training in the same clothes for five days.

"Every country gets hydration packs from the organisers, and for some reason we haven't got ours. I've asked and I just get a blank stare. So you've got guys on crutches walking about 2km to get water from the dining hall."

Pistorius, speaking about his team's travel arrangements, from SA continued: "You've got big blokes, like Fanie Lombaard, who are crammed into these small seats, when they could have had an easier flight in business.

"That means extra time stretching and the potential of a cricked back. Arnu Fourie (a below-the-knee amputee) hasn't been able to put his leg on yet to train because his stump is (still) so swollen."

Fashion disaster

Sascoc came under fire last month for their handling of the South Africa Olympic team, as well with issues ranging from uniforms that did not fit, to an uninspired outfit for the opening ceremony.

SA's Olympians were voted the fourth worst-dressed at the ceremony and by all accounts the Paralympic team could go 'one better' than that when the Games officially open on Saturday.

The SA Olympians were, of course, teased for wearing bright green crocs at the opening ceremony, with opening ceremony flag bearer Natalie du Toit — who will also be swimming at the Paralympics — also having to put up with poor organisation ahead of her ground-breaking 10km race, having been based quite far from where the event took place. Du Toit's request — two days before her race — for a hotel closer to her race venue was ignored until her manager paid out of her own pocket to move her closer.

"I don't know how they expect us to wear something so ugly. It's going to be embarrassing for the country to have us walking in front of millions of people in that. We wanted to wear the suits they gave us for the farewell banquet, but they didn't want to listen to us," Pistorius told The Star.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), meanwhile, expressed it's "disgust" in a strongly-worded statement released on Wednesday and called for answers from Sascoc.

"Heads should roll. What are these 'officials', whoever they are, being paid? The IFP will call for Parliament to debate the issue in its entirety as soon as possible. We also support the call for a 'summit' to examine the entire Olympic and Sascoc saga," read the statement.

  • Have Sascoc dropped the ball again? Leave a comment below!

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