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Slain girlfriend of Olympian ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius was on her own fast track

Even before she met the world’s fastest man on no legs, Reeva Steenkamp was becoming a celebrity in her own right — a highly educated entrepreneur and vibrant model from a solid home.

“She was a rising star,” her publicist, Sarit Tomlinson, said yesterday.

“There was so much in the pipeline for her.”

SEE: REEVA STEENKAMP

Steenkamp, 29, was born in Cape Town to a family of horse trainers — her dad is related to the Amos brothers, the most famous trainers in the country — and moved as a child to Port Elizabeth, where she attended St. Dominic’s Priory School.

She graduated from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University with a law degree in 2005 — showing she had both beauty and brains.

That same year, Steenkamp’s modeling career took off when she was named a finalist in several regional competitions.

Riding on that success, she put her law career on hold and moved to Johannesburg after signing a deal to be the South African face of Avon.

Opportunities continued to roll in: She was selected by FHM magazine as one of the world’s 100 sexiest women two years running and appeared in national and international advertisement campaigns for major brands, including Toyota, FHM, Cover and the Italian brand Zui.

This year, Steenkamp was slated to be a celebrity contestant on the reality-TV show “Tropika Island of Treasure,” scheduled to begin airing this weekend.

It was her skyrocketing modeling career that brought Steenkamp into famed Olympian Oscar Pistorius’ social circle. They met at a race day at the Kyalami track in November.

They were introduced by the husband of her best friend, businessman Justin Divaris, who was close friends with the Blade Runner.

The model and the Olympian clicked immediately. The day they met, they attended the South African Sports Awards together — but denied being romantically involved.

They went public two months ago, and friends said they were committed and deeply in love.

“They were even talking about getting married and having kids,” Divaris, chief executive of the Daytona Group, told the Pretoria News.

“There are terrible stories out there, but they aren’t true. They were in love.”

Despite her rising star, Steenkamp kept her head down and continually broke modeling stereotypes, Tomlinson said.

“People assume I’m of the princess variety, but the only Barbie I had growing up was one that came with a horse,” Steenkamp told FHM magazine in November.

“I only ever had guy mates growing up — and I’m grateful for it,” she added. “I used to ride horses until a bad fall left me with a broken back, but I can jam some hockey and netball.”

A self-described “very structured and organized person,” Steenkamp set up an export company that shipped fresh produce to Mauritius and Saudi Arabia.

And she was committed to empowering women. Just yesterday, she was scheduled to give a motivational speech at a Johannesburg school.

“It was about empowerment and inspiration and what inspires you and how to follow your dreams,” Tomlinson said.

She took her message to Twitter often, urging her followers to stand up against sexual abuse.

She was “the sweetest, kindest, just angelic soul” and a “very inspiring individual, very passionate about speaking about women and empowerment,” Tomlinson said.