Oscar Pistorius, a once-inspirational figure who gained international fame as an Olympic sprinter for South Africa before being convicted of murdering his girlfriend, will be released on parole, authorities said Friday.

A parole board granted Mr. Pistorius’ application on the grounds that he had served half of the 15-year sentence he received for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his home a decade ago, making him eligible under South African law was entitled to parole.

After a hearing at the Atteridgeville Correctional Center outside South Africa’s administrative capital Pretoria, the Ministry of Correctional Services said in a statement that Mr Pistorius was a “first-time offender with a positive support system” and therefore met the requirements for parole.

Before his fall, Mr. Pistorius was celebrated in South Africa and around the world as an athlete who had overcome personal adversity as a double amputee and fought for the right to compete in the Olympics, earning him the nickname “Blade Runner” because of the carbon fiber prosthetic blades, with whom he raced.

Mr Pistorius, 37, will be released on January 5, the statement said.

In March, the board rejected Mr. Pistorius’ parole for a formal reason: the authorities had incorrectly assessed whether he had served the required minimum period of imprisonment, the correctional authority said at the time.

The calculation was based on a misunderstanding about when Mr Pistorius’ murder conviction began. Mr Pistorius was initially convicted of manslaughter, but prosecutors appealed and his conviction was upgraded to murder.

An appeal court increased his sentence from six to 15 years in prison, the minimum recommended sentence for premeditated murder under South African law.

Mr Pistorius’s lawyers called on South Africa’s Constitutional Court, the country’s highest decision-making body, to rule on the parole issue. In October, the court ruled that Mr. Pistorius had served the minimum sentence and ordered the prison system to hear his application for parole.

The legal uncertainty is a reminder of the complexity of Mr. Pistorius’s trial and his eventual conviction for the murder of his girlfriend, Ms. Steenkamp, ​​who was 29 at the time. Mr Pistorius shot Ms Steenkamp, ​​a model, through a locked bathroom door in the early hours of February 14, 2013.

That’s what he claimed Her death was an accident and that he fired his gun because he believed an intruder had broken into his exclusive home in a security estate in Pretoria.

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Pistorius killed Ms. Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day out of jealousy after an argument. During the trial they pointed to text messages in which Ms Steenkamp said she was afraid of Mr Pistorius’ temper as evidence of an unstable relationship between the couple.

As part of the parole process, the board heard from Ms. Steenkamp’s mother, June Steenkamp. During the hearing in March, the Steenkamp family campaigned against Mr Pistorius’ desire for freedom.

June Steenkamp did not attend the hearing and did not oppose Mr. Pistorius’s parole, but questioned whether he had been rehabilitated. In a statement, she recalled evidence of Mr. Pistorius’ temperament, including text messages and statements from former partners.

“I don’t know to what extent his bad behavior still exists or was evident during his incarceration,” she said in a statement read by Rob Matthews, a family friend whose daughter was also murdered by a partner, “but I do “I would be concerned for every woman’s safety if this had not been taken into account in his rehabilitation process.”

Ms. Steenkamp’s father, Barry Steenkamp, ​​died in September at age 80. In media interviews before his death, Mr Steenkamp claimed that Mr Pistorius had deliberately shot his daughter.

Mr Pistorius was hailed as an inspirational figure. He was born without a fibula in one of his legs, the bone that runs between the knee and ankle next to the shinbone. His legs were amputated before his first birthday and he was able to walk with prosthetics before his second birthday.

At 17, Mr. Pistorius had Won gold medals at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens. Despite more victories At the Paralympics, Mr. Pistorius was determined to compete with able-bodied athletes.

The world sports association, the IAAF, rejected He rejected his bid to take part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but after winning an appeal, he later qualified for and was allowed to take part in the London Games.

At the 2012 London Olympics, he ran the 400 meters, becoming the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics. The fact that he didn’t win any medals hardly diminished his global reputation.

His success on the circuit also brought wealth and a measure of infamy: He earned more than $1 million in endorsement deals with major brands and made headlines for crashing his boat in 2008 and for having extravagant taste in pets (two African white tigers).

He also deserves a place People Magazine’s Sexiest Female Athletes list while he and Ms. Steenkamp regularly walked the red carpet in South Africa.