Little Rio Woolf, the English boy who was named after the Olympic city and who walks with a prosthetic leg, received a very special present for his eighth birthday last weekend (28 May) – a new running blade with a knee joint, all slotting into a socket that carries the design of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Torch. 

With the new blade, Rio will be that much closer to emulating his great hero, Brazilian bladerunner Alan Fonteles. Inspired by the feats of Fonteles and his rivals at London 2012, Rio gained the confidence to dream a new dream: to become a Paralympic athlete.

This will be Rio's first running blade with a knee joint. He will use the new prosthesis purely for track and field and other sports. Although the socket is still being finalised by specialists at Dorset Orthopaedic Hospital in the UK, Rio has already been able to enjoy test runs with a knee joint for the very first time. 

"Within just a few minutes he had adapted so well," proud mum Juliette say. "There was a great improvement in his technique. Instead of swinging his (previously straight) blade leg out to the side, he was bringing his new blade forward and lifting it up, using his new prosthetic knee joint and running faster and faster."

Trevor and Juliette Woolf named their son Rio after spending their honeymoon in the city. When he was born, doctors saw he had a rare bone deficiency and had to amputate his right leg while he was just a baby. That hasn't stopped Rio becoming a public figure in the UK and a symbol for the potential of amputees and other children with an impairment.

For his latest prosthesis, Rio has insisted on keeping the Rio 2016 Paralympic Torch socket design, which has proved a big hit with celebrity admirers. At the Invictus Games for wounded veterans of the armed forces, which took place in Florida in May, Prince Harry took a great interest in Rio's high-tech leg and the Rio 2016 socket.

"Prince Harry asked Rio all about the socket design and if he was going to Rio 2016," Juliette says. "He took a long time to admire the artwork!"

Rio's parents say their son must be the only amputee in the world to have a Rio 2016 Paralympic Torch socket. He is also one of the first children anywhere to be fitted with the new-style paedriatic blade from specialist German manufacturer Ottobock.

Inspiration for the Games

In 2013, Rio was invited to visit the Rio 2016 organising committee to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and to visit the Paralympic School Games.

In 2016 he will of course be back in town to follow the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, which will be held from 7 to 18 September in the city that carries his name. And it surely can't be too long before Rio takes his own place on a Paralympic running track for the very first time. 

Rio caught up with his idol Alan Fonteles in 2013 at the Diamond League in London (Photo: Getty Images/Paul Gilham)