“He is the definition of global inspiration.”

Oscar Pistorius has been named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2012. He is the only South African on the list.

Pistorius has won four gold medals at the Paralympic games and holds a number of world record times for sprinting. He is also the first amputee to win an able-bodied world track medal, after the South African 4x400m relay team won silver in last year’s World Championships. In February this year he also won the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award.

Sean Gregory, TIME’s sports columnist, had the following to say about Pistorius:

What’s possible in athletics? Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee sprinter from South Africa, and his effort to compete against able-bodied runners in the 400-m and 4×400-m sprint events at the 2012 London Olympics, make the answer clear: absolutely anything. Even when the running establishment — convinced his blades provided an advantage — tried to confine Pistorius to the Paralympics, he kept pushing his limits and the limits of the human body. Now he’s won the right to compete against the world’s best. He is the definition of global inspiration.

Other people who made the list include Mitt Romney, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Hillary Clinton, Kate and Pippa Middleton, NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, Rihanna, Louis C.K., Stephen Colbert, Syrian President Bashar Assad, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. See the full list here.

[Source: TIME]