- Title: CHINA: SWIMMING: Amputee swimmer pursues her dreams in Beijing Paralympics
- Date: 7th September 2008
- Summary: (ASIA) BEIJING, CHINA (RECENT - AUGUST 27, 2008) (REUTERS) DU TOIT SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) SOUTH AFRICAN AMPUTEE AND OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC SWIMMER NATALIE DU TOIT SAYING: "I think if people really have a dream and really work hard to achieve it, you know they can achieve anything they put their minds to. For me, it is not about losing half a leg. If
- Embargoed: 22nd September 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA329C1F82XMTP97P5XKIDGT6Z5
- Story Text: South African amputee Natalie Du Toit, one of only two athletes to enter both the Olympics and the Paralympics, trains hard to defend her gold medals in the Beijing Games.
South African amputee Natalie du Toit won admiration for her pluck in swimming the 10-kilometre race in the Beijing Olympics, deemed a triumph of courage over tragedy.
Now she is training hard to defend her five gold medals at the Beijing Paralympics that kick off on Saturday (September 6).
Du Toit, 24, who carried South Africa's flag at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics has been selected to do perform the same task at the Paralympics.
Even though there was no medal for the swimmer in the Olympics, who lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident in 2001 -- a year after narrowly failing to qualify for Sydney Games -- she has already won hearts around the world.
The Cape Town-bred swimmer believed perseverance was the key to her success.
"I think if people really have a dream and really work hard to achieve it, you know they can achieve anything they put their minds to. For me, it is not about losing half a leg. If I want to swim with able-bodied people, I've got to do everything they do. I'm going to train as hard as they do, if not harder, you know, to work on, sort of more the upper body strength.
I am quite lucky, naturally I am quite strong in my upper body. So you know that those types of things always play in one's favour. But for me to go out there and be in the Olympic Games and as well as the Paralympics, it is a dream come true," Du Toit told Reuters.
She missed out on qualifying for the 2004 Athens Olympics but competed in the Paralympics that year, winning five gold medals and a silver. She also won gold against able-bodied swimmers in the 1,500 metre freestyle at last year's All Africa Games.
The swimmer hoped her experience could be an inspiration for people with disabilities.
"I don't think, for me, it was not my goal to be the first person or the only disabled person, you know, there were records set to be broken, the same with boundaries. I don't like to be put into a box, you know, I am just me, I have my own goals, my own dreams. That is what I go for, you know, if people see that is possible and that they can also go out and achieve their dream and goal and that's perfect," she said.
Du Toit was identified as a potential Olympian in her early teens.
But her career appeared to have been cut short in February 2001 when a car hit her when she rode past. Her left leg was amputated at the knee after it began to turn gangrenous, and a titanium rod was inserted into her femur.
Three months later, she was back in the water.
Wearing a prosthetic leg out of the water, she switched her focus on long distances in the Games because they require less kicking.
After finishing 16th in the 10 kilometre swim at the Beijing Games, the swimmer said she needed to train hard to defend her golds at the Paralympics.
"I think for me, my sort of goal is to come back with same amount of medals as I achieved in Athens. It has been rough for me, you know, because my teams or all the swimmers that compete before me at the Olympics here in Beijing, and so they had all left, they had already gone home and already sort of been on a relaxing sort of stage before I raced. So I had to try and keep myself positive and then, after that race, to try and come back up again and be on a high and compete is quite difficult," she said.
Du Toit will defend her five gold medals in 50 metres, 100 metres and 400 metres freestyle, 200 metres individual medley and 100 metres butterfly at the Paralympics.
In non-Olympic years, du Toit spends a lot of time giving motivational talks to schools, companies and churches in South Africa. She talks of her life and how everyone should have a goal and tells listeners they should never give up on their dreams.
Du Toit and fellow-South African "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius, will receive a lot of attention despite the rival attractions of goalball, wheelchair rugby and sitting volleyball.
Du Toit and Polish table tennis player Natalia Partyka are the only two athletes to appear at both Games this year, while Pistorius's ultimately doomed attempt to qualify for Olympics on his prosthetics made headlines around the world.
The Beijing Paralympics run from August 6-17. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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