Natalie du Toit and her athletic career ( Part 1)
Natalie is a South African swimmer with the most versatile athletic career. The swimming beauty has made a good name in butterfly, backstroke and freestyle.
The great swimmer was born in Cape Town, the capital city of South Africa on the 29th of January 1984. She received her early education at the Wynberg Girls’ High School Cape Town. Natalie completed her scholastic education at the Reddam House
also in Cape Town. For her bachelor’s degree, she attended the University of Cape Town and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. The major subjects studied by the swimmer during her undergraduate course were genetics and physiology. Natalie has exceptional
interest for motivational speaking and she pursues this interest of hers in her free time.
The start of her swimming career can be traced back to 1998, when she was only 14. That was when she participated in her first international competition, 1998 Commonwealth Games which took place in Kuala Lumpur. Three years later, her left leg had to be
amputated at the knee after she survived a fatal road accident while she was returning from her swimming practise. She was hit by a scooter. The young girl did not let her talent fade away and was back in the pool right after three months of her recovery.
She immediately started training herself for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. What makes Natalie so special is that she swims without the help of a prosthetic limb.
At the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Natalie proved her mettle by not only by winning the events that she contended but also by setting world records in multi-disability 50 metre freestyle and the multi-disability 100 metre freestyle. Not just this, Natalie made
history by qualifying for the 800 metre freestyle final event and that too for able-bodied athletes. This achievement was acknowledged by the Commonwealth Games and so she was honoured with the first David Dixon Award for Outstanding Athlete of the Games at
the closing of the Manchester Games. The same year, she was presented with the Western Cape Golden Cross by Western Cape Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
Natalie lived up to her title in 2003 at the All Africa Games. She bagged the gold medal in the 800 metres freestyle event. She continued to give great performances and once again won a silver medal in the 800 metre freestyle event at the Afro-Asian Games,
which took place in the same year. Natalie also managed to clinch the bronze medal in the 400 metre freestyle meet at the same event.
It was very unfortunate, but Natalie could not qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics that took place in Athens. However, she participated in the Paralymics the same year and in the same city. She played with utter dedication to make up for not making it to
the Olympics and won one silver and five gold medals. These achievements and honours brought her to the spotlight of the modern sports arena and thus she was nominated for the Laures World Sportsperson of the Year 2004 along with the Disability Award. The
former is considered one of the most prestigious honours in the world of sports and athletics. Moreover, Natalie was amongst the top 100 Great South Africans in the year 2004.
Natalie did not disappoint her fans in any event that she became a part of. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the legendary swimmer reached out for the benchmarks that she had set in the previous edition of the Games in Manchester and returned home with 2
gold medals in the same events as in 2002. The same year, Natalie also swam at the fourth IPC World Swimming Championships and bagged six gold medals. In a race that took place at the championships, Natalie finished in the third spot. The race had a total
of 56 competitors, out of which 20 were females while 36 were male contenders.
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