Paralympic star Natalie du Toit has made history by becoming the first amputee to qualify for the Olympic Games.
Du Toit’s fourth-place finish with a time of 2:03:07.8 means that the 21 year old amputee qualifies to compete against the world’s top able-bodied swimmers in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
However, Du Toit must still wait for South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee to announce the official South African Beijing 2008 Olympic Team. The announcement is to be made in June.
The 10km open water race, which is considered to be one of the most challenging swimming events, was won by Russia’s Larisa Ilchenko (2:02:02.7). Britain’s Cassie Patten came second while Du Toit narrowly missed the bronze medal which went to Yurema Requena of Spain with a time of 2:02: 07.2.
In 2001 Du Toit’s left leg was amputated from the knee following an accident in which she was hit by a car while travelling on her scooter.
Du Toit went on to surprise the swimming world by continuing to compete despite the loss of a leg.
Only a year after her accident Du Toit became the first amputee to compete in the finals of a major able-bodied swimming competition at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. In 2004 Natalie won five gold medals and one silver at the Paralympics.
Qualifying for the Olympics is the realisation of a life-long dream for Du Toit. Speaking to The UK Telegraph after her race she said, "I'm sorry. I think this is the first time I've ever cried after a swim because it means so much.
It's something that I've wanted to do for my whole life and I am just really, really happy. It's about having the dream of going to the Olympics all my life. I've dreamed about it since I was six years old.”
“After the motorbike accident it was just a matter of going out there and seeing what I could do, but back then I could never have dreamed this day would come. Definitely not. To come out here and have such a good race is fantastic," she added.
Fellow athlete Oscar Pistorius is currently pursuing his dream of joining Du Toit at the Olympics. The double amputee who runs with carbon fibre prosthetics is currently appealing a ruling made by the International Association of Athletics Federation stating that his prosthetics give him an unfair advantage.
Du Toit believes that having a disability should not matter when competing. “When you're racing in an able-bodied competition you're all equal and you go out there and try your best, and that's what counts,” she told The UK Telegraph.
Source: SouthAfrica.info / SAGN
