24-year-old, who lost her left leg in a road accident in 2001, has become the first leg amputee to compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Although Polish table tennis player Natalia Partyka was the first arm amputee to compete at Beijing 2008, du Toit chose to tough it out in the most arduous event on the swimming roster — the 10k open water race - an event which has been likened to “wrestling in water”, which requires immense physical strength and endurance and was on the Olympic roster for the first time in Beijing

“There was lots of dunking and it’s always going to be dangerous,” said du Toit after the race, in which she finished a creditable 16th out of a field of 24 swimmers, in a time of two hours and 33.6 seconds, just over one minute behind winner Larisa Iichenko.

“The best thing is not to panic. You have to stay with the pack or you lose momentum. But the pack is always a dangerous place to be, especially with the buoys. When I hit the buoy I lost rhythm and pace.”

Unlike her South African compatriot, Oscar Pistorius, a sprinter who failed to persuade the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow him to use artificial limbs to compete in Beijing, du Toit does not use a prosthetic leg.

“I didn’t have a great race but I did my best. I would have liked to have been in the top five. As a seasoned swimmer there should be no excuses. I’m a bit disappointed, but when I got out of the water I couldn’t move so I gave everything.”

Flag Bearer for South African Olympics Team

Competing in her first Olympic Games has been an ambition Natalie had nurtured since she was a six-year-old.

“To be here, is a dream come true. A dream is something that you set for yourself, not what other people set for you. When I qualified in Seville [at the 2008 World championships in which she finished fourth] I burst into tears. I couldn’t believe that I was going to the Olympic Games.”

Natalie’s career got off to a remarkable start. The Cape Town swimmer set multiple national age group records as an able-bodied swimmer in both medley events and she competed in the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games in 1998 at the young age of 14.

But a road accident in February 2001, sustained when Natalie was steering her scooter through rush hour traffic when traveling from school to training, changed her life.

Doctors couldn’t save her left leg, so it was amputated and a titanium rod installed. Incredibly, the road to recovery began the next day when Natalie got out of bed.

“I just wanted to get back to life again - swimming four hours a day - and I wanted to be able to walk again so that I would be able to do things by myself,” she recalled.

Preparing for the start of the grueling 10km marathon swim

A year later she won her first major international medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester when she raced as both an able bodied and disabled competitor. She finished eighth place in the able bodied 800m Freestyle, and won gold in the 50 and 100m Elite Athletes with a Disability (EAD) races.

She was also presented with the first David Dixon Award for Outstanding Athlete of the Games, ahead of legendary Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, who had won six gold medals and set a world record in the 400 meter freestyle.

Natalie repeated the same Commonwealth feat four years later in Melbourne.

With the Olympics out of the way, she will now switch back to the pool to defend the five Paralympic swimming medals she won in Athens 2004: the 100m Butterfly, 100m Freestyle, 200m Individual Medley, 400m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle (all gold), and aim to go one place better in the 100m Backstroke, in which she won a silver medal.

Where’s she on the start line? Swimming in Spain for World Open Water Swimming Championships. She’s the first one.

Her double-selection also means she’s had to shape a training schedule to meet the demands of both events. She focused on endurance for the Olympic 10k Swimming Marathon and will now switch to speed work for the Paralympics.

“I never thought of myself as being disadvantaged,” said Natalie. “My message isn’t just for disabled people, it is for everyone. It’s to use the negatives in a good light.”

Indeed her website boasts the inspiring motto: “Be everything you want to be.”

A few years back a coach gave her an unattributed poem:

The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals,
The tragedy of life lies in not having goals to reach for.
It is not a disgrace not to reach for the stars,
But it is a disgrace not to have stars to reach for.

If you are looking for true Olympian spirit you will find it in Natalie du Toit.
[from Beijing Olympics Website]

And off she goes, on one leg, but not any slower.

Russian Larisa Ilchenko who won the gold medal for women’s 10km marathon swim and insisted amputee rival Natalie du Toit deserves a medal just for competing.

Everyone has a story to tell, and she tells a story of self belief, perseverance, courage and strength.

And yes, we will be seeing more of her, both in Paralympics and 2012 London.
“I tried my best,” du Toit said. “I’m not too happy with it, but I’ll be back for 2012.”