Oscar could be released in time to represent SA at 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Pistorius‚ jailed for six years on Wednesday for the murder of his girlfriend‚ Reeva Steenkamp‚ could serve as little as half that sentence.

So he could be a free man three years from now‚ on July 6‚ 2020 - 18 days before the opening ceremony in Tokyo.

Given that Pistorius is going to have a lot of time on his hands in prison‚ using most of it to train‚ this doesn’t seem a reality stretch.

He will‚ however‚ be almost 34 by the time the 2020 Games start.

So any return to action for him might have to be in a discipline less taxing than sprinting. But could it happen?

“I wouldn’t see why not‚” Tubby Reddy‚ the chief executive of SA Sports Confederation and Olympic committee‚ said after Wednesday’s court proceedings.

“Even if he is paroled he would have served his time and paid his debt to society. He would be expected to take his place in society again.”

And it’s not as if Olympians haven’t been sentenced to serve time in the past. In fact‚ Pistorius is the 53rd.

A Belgian figure skater‚ Yvonne de Ligne‚ hired a hit man to kill her speed skater husband‚ Charles de Ligne‚ in 1944‚ eight years after they had both competed at the 1936 Winter Games.

As Charles was part of the Belgian underground fighting the Nazis‚ Yvonne tried to blame the crime on the Gestapo.

But she was found out and served six of her sentence of 15 years before being released on medical grounds and dying soon afterwards of tuberculosis.

An American pistol shooter at the 1920 Games in Antwerp‚ James Snook‚ was sent to the electric chair in 1930 for murdering his lover‚ Theora K Hix‚ by slitting the throat after she demanded that he leave his wife for her.

Janez Albreht‚ the Yugoslavian ice hockey team’s goaltender at the 1976 Winter Games‚ spent five years and 11 months inside for attempting to murder his wife.

Igor Paklin‚ a Soviet high jumper at the 1988 and 1992 Games‚ was convicted of manslaughter in 1995 for beating his business partner to death.