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Natalie du Toit (29 January 1984 - ) is a South African swimmer. She is best known for the gold medals she won at the 2004 Paralympic Games as well as the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Life
Born in Cape Town, Du Toit first competed internationally at the age of 14, when she took part in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.
In February 2001, her left leg had to be amputated at the knee after a car had driven into her while she was riding her scooter to school just after she had finished swimming practice. However, she started swimming again in May of the same year, even before she had started to walk again, with the intention of competing in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
During the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Du Toit, who was then 18 years old, won both the multi-disability 50 m freestyle and the multi-disability 100 m freestyle in world record time. She also made sporting history by qualifying for the 800 m able-bodied freestyle final - the first time that an athlete with a disability had qualified for the final of an able-bodied event.
At the closing of the Manchester Commonwealth Games, she was presented with the first David Dixon Award for Outstanding Athlete of the Games.
In 2003, competing against able-bodied swimmers, Du Toit won gold in the 800 metres freestyle at the All-Africa Games as well as silver in the 800 metres freestyle and bronze in the 400 metres freestyle at the Afro-Asian Games.
She narrowly missed qualifying for the Olympics in Athens in 2004, but during the Paralympics that were held in the same city, she won one silver and five gold medals. In the same year, her courage and achievements were acknowledged with a nomination for the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year 2004 with Disability Award.
Her next target is qualifying for the Olympics in Beijing 2008; she hopes that her speciality event - the 1 500 m freestyle - will be an Olympic event by then.
She is also currently (2004) studying for a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Cape Town, specialising in genetics and physiology. In her free time, she also does motivational speaking.
Du Toit was voted 48th in the Top 100 Great South Africans (see List of South Africans) in 2004.
Major sporting achievements
- 100 m S9 backstroke swimming silver medal Paralympics (2004)
- 100 m S9 butterfly swimming gold medal - Paralympics (2004)
- 100 m S9 freestyle swimming gold medal - Paralympics (2004)
- 200m SM9 individual medley swimming gold medal - Paralympics (2004)
- 400 m S9 freestyle swimming gold medal - Paralympics (2004)
- 50 m S9 freestyle swimming gold medal - Paralympics (2004)
- 800 m freestyle swimming gold medal - All-Africa Games (2003)
- 800 m freestyle swimming silver medal - Afro-Asian Games (2003)
- 400 m freestyle swimming bronze medal - Afro-Asian Games (2003)
- 100 m freestyle swimming EAD (multi-disability) gold Commonwealth Games (2002)
- 50 m freestyle swimming EAD (multi-disability) gold - Commonwealth Games (2002)
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