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Water is life for South African star

OLYMPIC GAMES / Du Toit lost one of her legs in an accident when she was 17

— Photo: DPA

WHERE THERE IS A WILL… Natalie du Toit is among the medal hopefuls in the 10-km open-water race in the Beijing Olympics.

Johannesburg: South African swimmer and national hero Natalie du Toit is reminded of her disability at almost every turn.

When she made history in Seville in May by becoming the first amputee to qualify for the Olympic Games she had to wait by the water’s edge for someone to bring her prosthetic limb before climbing back up to the river bank to an ecstatic welcome.

While she was standing on the pontoon the particular pain she experiences from swimming minus one leg was already setting in — the sore hip, the cramps in the “good leg.” But for the two hours she had just spent competing in the 10-km world open-water championships in Spain’s murky Guadalquivir river, du Toit had once again felt like an able-bodied person.

“I can get in the water and be free of any prosthetic limb. It’s just me,” said the 24-year-old, whose coat-hanger shoulders, around double the span of her waist, testify to her reliance on upper body strength. Du Toit placed fourth in Seville, far exceeding her own expectations and propelling her into the league of the medal hopefuls in Beijing.

Cautious

But the swimmer is playing it cautiously, saying only she hopes to finish again “in the top 10.”

The girl from Cape Town was already something of a swimming prodigy when a car knocked her off her scooter after leaving the pool one day at age 17.

Three years before that she had already competed in the 1998 Commonwealth Games.

The accident shattered her left femur in three places, requiring a through-knee amputation but denting her ambition not a jot.

“Lying in hospital I just wanted to get back to swimming,” du Toit, whose one stiff leg gives a slightly jaunty gait, recalls. “That was what life was for me.”

A year after the accident she came back to take gold in two disabled races at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and qualify for the able-bodied 800 metres freestyle final.

In 2004, she swept the board at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens with five golds and a silver. But her sights never wavered from the able-bodied Olympics, earning her comparisons with fellow South African amputee athlete Oscar Pistorius.

The 21-year-old sprinter from Pretoria edged closer to his dream of competing for South Africa in Beijing when the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled he should be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes.

World athletics body IAAF had earlier this year banned him from events conducted under its rules, claiming his blade-like prosthetic limbs gave him an advantage over able-bodied sportsmen.

“For me it wasn’t about trying to be the first one (first amputee athlete to make it to the Olympics) or to beat Oscar,” says du Toit, who lists being able to run among her dreams.

Unlike double amputee Pistorius, du Toit does not have the option of using a prosthetic limb in competition. “It would rust,” she says.

Quite powerful

Instead, she has learned to adapt to her technique, to her strengths. Her good leg is “quite powerful” she says, but she can’t use it all the time because it gets tired.

One of the most difficult things, without a strong kick, is keeping her elbows out of the water. Sprint finishes are also not her forte.

The 10-km open-water race, dubbed the marathon of swimming, is making its debut at the Beijing Olympics.

Du Toit will be jostling for the inside lane in a race of several laps in a custom-built rowing lagoon with 24 other swimmers.

With open-water swimmers known to give a sneaky punch or tug of the suit to slow down competitors, the 10-km is known to be bruising.

Du Toit had a bruised eye after the Seville event, where she finished fourth in the race won by Russia’s Larisa Ilchenko. — DPA

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