Everything she wants to be - Toit´s Olympic dream

Source: China Daily | 08-20-2008 13:24

Even if she does not win a medal, South African swimmer Natalie du Toit's journey to the Olympic Games has already won hearts around the world as a triumph of courage over tragedy.

Du Toit, 24, lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident in 2001 a year after narrowly failing to qualify for Sydney. She will compete in today's 10km open water race, a new Olympic event and one of the most punishing of the Games.

None of the swimmers in the water equivalent of the road marathon will make allowances for du Toit's disability, no one ever does, and she will be elbowed, pulled, ducked and drafted like everyone else at the turning buoys and "feeding pontoons".

South African swimmer Natalie du Toit,  who lost her leg in a motorcycle  accident , will compete in the 10km  race.

"They won't make it easy for her, they will be banging and pushing," du Toit's coach, Karoly von Toros, told Reuters. "There is no respect for her disability. She doesn't even want it."

Du Toit, who carried South Africa's flag at the Beijing Games' Opening Ceremony, was one of only two athletes to enter both the Olympics and the Paralympics and could become the first amputee to win a medal at a Summer Games for 56 years.