Oscar Pistorius accused of murder- Updates Included

South African Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee sprinter who inspired millions with his performance at the 2012 Summer Olympic games in London has been accused of murder in the shooting death of his model girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. It happened on February 14 at the Pistorius home which is in a gated community in the South Africa capital, Pretoria. Pistorius appeared at a hearing last week.

South African police found the 9mm pistol used in the shooting and arrested Pistorius on February 15. His court date was changed to today, February 19, so thats why I decided to post this today instead of when it happened, last week.

Pistorius who has a love of guns appeared in a South African court today and admitted he shot Steenkamp because he thought there was a robber in his home. Steenkamp was shot 3 times while in the bathroom of the Pistorius home after an argument. Prosecutors say that Pistorius premediated the murder of his girlfriend and plan to charge him with murder. Prosecutors want the highest bail money allowed by South African law imposed on Pistorius.

There had been a history of domestic incidents at the Pistorius home police say.

I will add or change the facts and details of this story depending on evidence presented or learned in the next few weeks..

Its a sad story to talk about considering how popular Pistorius is in his native country of South Africa.

Update: Pistorius was granted $113,000 US dollars bail and now is free until his trial on June 4. He cannot live at his gated residence in Pretoria and has to turn in his passports and guns. Pistorius also cannot leave Pretoria.

June 2013 Update: The trial was postponed until August 19 so that the prosecution can gather more evidence for his Indictment.

August 2013 Update: The Pistorius murder trial has been set to begin on March 3, 2014.

May 2014 Update: There has been a disruption in the Pistorius murder trial for psychiatric evaluations tied to several outbursts/sobbing. Pistorius could not recall events in his testimony and the defense raised the issue of Pistorius having Anxiety disorder and then the trial has halted for 30 days for psychiatric evaluation. His trial resumes on Monday June 30.

September 2014 Update: Pistorius's trial has concluded and the verdict is in. Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of culpable homicide, which is the U.S. equivalent of involuntary manslaughter. He will be sentenced Oct. 13. South Africa law for this kind of crime carries a sentence of between zero and 15 years. Pistorius had been acquitted of the more serious murder charges and now is awaiting sentencing. Pistorius is free on bail until his sentencing.

October 2014 Update: Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to 5 years in prison for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius can be released from prison in 10 months because the law he was sentenced under only provides someone serve one-sixth of their sentence before being released. Pistorius would serve the rest of his sentence under house arrest.
After serving half of his sentence Pistorius can apply for parole. Pistorius's family will not appeal the sentence.

June 2015 Update: Oscar Pistorius will be released from prison on August 21, 2015 and go on house arrest after serving the minimum 10 month sentence. There is an effort to appeal the decision to acquit Pistorius for murder. This will start in November 2015 through the Supreme Court of Appeal.

August 2015 Update: There was a ruling by South African Justice Minister Michael Masutha which will delay Pistorius's release from prison. The ruling says that Pistorius should have served the entire ten months before granting a release date. The release date was not set.

October 2015 Update: After being denied parole on October 5, Oscar Pistorius was released from prison on October, 19, 2015. Pistorius will serve the rest of his 5 year sentence under house arrest at his Uncle's home in a Pretoria suburb and perform community service.

December 2015 Update: The South African Supreme Court overturned Pistorius's culpable homicide conviction on December 3, 2015 and found him guilty of murder. Pistorius has appealed the decision to the South African Constitutional Court and was granted bail of $688 US dollars. Pistorius will remain under house arrest. A date for sentencing has not been set.

March 2016 Update: The murder appeal of Oscar Pistorius has been denied by South Africa's Consitutional Court. Sentencing will occur at a hearing scheduled for April 18.

April 2016 Update: Oscar Pistorius appeared in a Pretoria court on April 18 and the judge decided on a June 13-17 sentencing hearing for murder.

June 2016 Update: Pistorius sentencing hearing concluded. Pistorius' attorney asked him to remove his prosthetic legs and walk in front of the judge to show his vulnerability. Pistorius will be sentenced July 6.

July 2016 Update: Pistorius will serve a 6 year prison sentence. This sentence can be considered 'light" because the typical sentence for murder in South Africa is 15 years. After serving about one-sixth of his sentence, Pistorius will be eligible to be released from prison and placed under house arrest to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

November 2017 Update: Oscar Pistorius had his sentence increased to 13 years and five months by the South African Supreme Court for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. Pistorius originally had a lighter sentence of six years and was considered lenient by South African standards. Pistorius was supposed to be paroled by 2019, now he won't be paroled until 2023.

April 2018 Update: All legal appeals have been exhausted in the 13 year sentence handed down by the South African Supreme Court to Oscar Pistorius. Pistorius will have to serve half of his sentence before parole can be considered.

IOC drops wrestling

The IOC executive committee voted today to drop wrestling from the 2020 summer Olympic games. It was a secret ballot vote. The IOC wants to cap the summer Olympics growth and athlete participation at 10,500. The IOC voted to include golf and rugby in time for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. There are currently 25 medal sports in the summer Olympics.

Wrestling is a Olympics founding sport and has been around since 708 BC and was included in the first modern Olympics in 1896. The IOC was expected to cut modern pentathlon but decided on wrestling instead. The IOC based its decsion based on things like global participation and popularity. USA wrestling and FILA( Wrestling International Federation) will try to lobby the IOC to reinstate the sport to the IOC executive board in May. The IOC will vote on which sport to add in September 2013. The seven other sports lobbying to be included in the 2020 Olympics are baseball, softball, sport climbing, squash, karate, roller sports, wushu and wakeboarding.

There were 344 athletes who competed in 11 medal events in freestyle wrestling and seven medal events in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2012 London Olympics. The USA has won 124 total medals in wrestling since its inception while the USSR won 116.
The USA had two gold medalists at last summer's London games, Jake Varner and Jordan Burroughs. Clarissa Chun won bronze along with Coleman Scott in women's freestyle. American women have won four medals since its inclusion at the 2004 Athens games.

The USOC does not have a seat on the 15-member IOC executive board. In 2005 The IOC voted to drop baseball and softball.

I, as well as, the USOC and USA wrestling are shocked at the IOC decision.

One year until Sochi winter games

Today marks one year before the 2014 winter Olympic games take place in Sochi, Russia. The games are scheduled from Feb. 7-23, 2014,

In other news American women Skier Lindsey Vonn suffered a knee injury during the world Championships in Austria this past week. She sustained tears to the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligament in her right knee and will be out for the rest of this season. Vonn hopes to be back in time for the winter Olympics in Sochi.

British swimmer Rebecca Adlington retired from competitive swimming at age 23. Adlington decided she couldn't compete against the younger swimmers.

2013 new mens beach volleyball teams named

1. Phil Dalhausser/Sean Rosenthal
2. Jake Gibb/Casey Patterson
3. Todd Rogers/Ryan Doherty

Olympic and athlete updates

USA track and field 100 hurdler Lolo Jones and track athlete Tianna Madison will join the USA bobsled team with a chance to qualify for the 2014 winter games in Sochi, Russia. Madison will be a push athlete for the bobsled team.

Salt Lake City will bid to host the 2026 Winter games provided the USOC actually bids for these games. The advantage for Salt Lake City is the venues from the 2002 games are still in place. The negative is few cities get to host an Olympics more than one time. Lake Placid, NY(1932 and 1980), St. Moritz, Switzerland(1928 and 1948) and Vienna, Austria(1964 and 1976) are the cities that have hosted a winter Olympics more than once.
Reno, Lake Tahoe Nevada also plan to submit a bid to the USOC to host the 2026 winter Olympic games.
Overall the USOC is looking to bid on either the 2024 summer games or the 2026 winter games.
The USOC did not place a bid to host the 2020 summer Olympics due to a dispute with the IOC over revenue sharing.

USA men's beach volleyball partner shakeup

The 2012 Olympic men's beach volleyball duo's are no longer. Last week Phil Dalhausser split from Todd Rogers. This week Sean Rosenthal split from Jake Gibb.
Dalhausser and Rosenthal will form a team while Rogers has retired from International play. Gibb has yet to announce his new partner.

Dalhausser/Rogers won gold in Beijing in 2008 but finished 9th in London in 2012.
Gibb/Rosenthal had two fifth place finishes in Beijing and London.

Two USA women's national team coaching changes

Today it was announced that USA women's national volleyball assistant coach Karch Kiraly will take over the head coaching duties from Hugh McCutcheon. McCutcheon resigned as national head coach to take the head volleyball coaching job at the University of Minnesota. Kiraly had been an assistant coach under McCutcheon since 2009.

Also USA women's national soccer coach Pia Sundhage stepped down as head coach on Sept. 1. She had a 89-6-10 record since taking over the USA women's team in Nov. 2007. The USA women's team has made it to every tournament final and has won 2 gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olym;pic games under Sundhage. She also coached the 2011 world cup team to a finals loss to Japan on penalty kicks. Sundhage plans to return to her native Sweden.