Pistorius appeared in court in South Africa today charged with murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, with the case being postponed until August 19.

The loss of the South African is a big blow but Zanardi, winner of two gold medals and a silver at London 2012 in hand-cycling, is confident that the Paralympic Movement can survive.

"It still has to be clear the circumstances and what exactly happened in that terrible incident and Oscar was certainly a great flag bearer for this sport," Zanardi told Al Jazeerea.

"But I think the sport is becoming strong enough to walk on its own legs.

"The sport, which emerged in London [2012], was appreciated by people, not because of Oscar Pistorius or Alex Zanardi, or others who competed there, but it was because people finally started to understand that those were great sporting events.

"To watch a lady that jumps on the swimming pool with no arms and she swims faster than a shark, this gives me goose bumps on my skin.

"It's amazing and if you're not impressed by that you don't have a heart.


"I'm not expecting the Paralympic Games to gain as much success as the Olympic Games, because it's impossible.

"People want to see the fastest man on earth in a pair of running shoes.

"But next to that, maybe they also have an interest in who is the fasted man on earth on a pair of prosthetic legs.

"He [Pistorius] was able to break through the greatest level of popularity.

"His particularity was that he was running so fast, up to the point where he could compete among able bodied athletes and that certainly raised a lot of interest around the world."

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