You might think that a top swimmer's career would be ended by a traffic accident in which she lost a leg. But when a car hit Natalie Du Toit of South Africa, while she was riding a motor scooter in 2001, she decided she had other plans.
The young swimmer, who at 16 had nearly qualified for the 2000 Olympics, fought her way back into competitive swimming. By 2002 she qualified for the finals of the 800 meter freestyle at the Commonwealth Games. According to her website, this marked the first time an amputee in the modern era had raced in the finals of an able-bodied international swimming competition.
Ms. Du Toit has since won a number of medals in both paralympic and able-bodied competitions, and last year was awarded the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability for “breaking down the barriers between disabled and able-bodied sport.” She recently visited children at a Soweto-area pool to promote a program aimed at reducing drowning deaths.
