Paralympic Champion Swimmer Qualifies for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Posted May 3, 2008 at 09:00 PM by Michael J. Sedor
Section: Beijing 2008, Beijing Results, Culture/History, Human Interest, Events, Aquatics, Featured Writers, Michael Sedor
South African Natalie du Toit qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games today in the 10 kilometer open water race after finishing fourth at the Open Water World Championships. Eight years ago after narrowly missing qualification for the 2000 Sydney Games the 24-year-old du Toit lost her left leg in a freak traffic accident. In her personal website www.nataliedutoit.com she lists three life goals: 1) Visit the Kruger National Park. 2) Make the 2008 Olympic Games. 3) To be able to run. In the past month she has accomplished 1 and 2 and given her extraordinary determination and desire we’re sure number three won’t be far behind.
Natalie du Toit is representative of everything that is wonderful about the Olympic Games. Her hard work, her passion, and her drive are surely what Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin had in mind when he created the games. She is the epitome of its motto “The most important part of the Olympics is not to win but to participate, just as the important thing in life is not the victory but the battle. It is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”
After her accident du Toit switched to distance swimming out of necessity; she was no longer as fast in her former specialties the 400m individual medley, 200m individual medley, and 200m butterfly. She would not quit. Her newfound event, however, was not yet an Olympic event. She would have to wait until this year before the 10k open water race was included in the Olympics roster. Between then and now she won five golds and a silver at the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games and made the final at the open 800m event at the Commonwealth Games.
This year she is going to the Olympics and there is no reason to believe she doesn’t have a chance to win a medal. Her fourth place World Championship finish was only five seconds slower than the gold medalist and only 0.6 slower than the third place finisher. At Beijing she is sure to have the entire world in her corner.
For more about this unbelievably uplifting and inspiring story you can read her 2004 interview by William Rowland in Disability World, her 2005 feature in Swimming World Magazine, a 2005 SouthAfrica.info profile, a Toronto Globe and Mail summary of today’s swim, and an ESPN.com recap of the same event.
Tags: amputee, beijing olympics, inspirational story, natalie du toit, olympic qualification, open water swim, paralympian
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On October 9, 2008
versace 4127 said:
The problem is a new injury would leave him out of the competitions.