Oscar Pistorius will be ineligible to compete in Paralympic competition for the entirety of his five-year sentence for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and may never return to the running track.
The 27-year-old six-time Paralympic champion and London 2012 Olympian was last month found guilty of culpable homicide, but cleared of murder, for shooting Steenkamp four times through a toilet door on February 14, 2013.
Today in Pretoria Pistorius was jailed by Judge Thokozile Masipa for five years and handed a three-year suspended sentence for a separate firearms charge - for discharging a weapon in a restaurant - as a lengthy case reached its conclusion.
A member of Pistorius's legal team said after the hearing that he is expected to serve a sixth of the sentence - around 10 months - in jail before being held under house arrest.
It was an horrific tragedy which puts sport into context.
Pistorius has been a star of the Paralympic Movement for almost a decade, since winning his first gold in the Athens Games in 2004, aged 17.
Known as the 'Blade Runner', as a result of his prosthetic carbon fibre running blades, or the 'Fastest Man with No Legs', Pistorius oozed charisma and delivered on and off the track.
His flaws have been laid bare during court proceedings and he will not be able to run competitively for some time.
He will not be free to compete in competitions run by the International Paralympic Committee until 2019, once his sentence has been served.
There will be an Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo in 2020, by which time the South African will be 33.
International Paralympic Committee spokesman Craig Spence said: "On his prospects of competing, for us he would have to serve the whole term even if he was released early.
"I think it [his sentence] will have very little impact. London 2012 showed that the Paralympian movement is about more than just one man. Lots of stars were born there."
The sentence means 400 metres specialist Pistorius, who won three Paralympic golds in Beijing in 2008 and another two at London 2012, where he also competed in the Olympics, will miss the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016, but may, should he wish to do so, return for Tokyo 2020.
Paralympic sport, with its host of stars, no longer needs him, yet Pistorius is bound to consider whether he needs his sport.
Running will not offer redemption for the crime he has committed, but it may give Pistorius the normality he will be craving on his first night incarcerated as a fallen idol not just of South Africa and Paralympic sport, but of sport as a whole.
The question is whether, in his 34th year, Pistorius will be willing, ready and able to run in Japan.
The International Olympic Committee said: "We take note of the court's decision.
"This is a human tragedy for the family of Reeva Steenkamp and also for Oscar Pistorius.
"We hope very much that time will bring comfort to all those concerned but at this stage we have no further comment to make."
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