Natalie du Toit

Natalie du Toit is a South African swimmer, born in Cape Town on 29 January 1984, who competed against able-bodied swimmers and in disability swimming at the highest level. She began competing internationally at fourteen and, after her left leg was amputated at the knee following a road accident at seventeen, returned to the pool within months and swims without a prosthetic limb. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games she won two multi-disability freestyle titles in world record time and became the first athlete with a disability to qualify for an able-bodied 800 m freestyle final. She won five gold medals and a silver at the 2004 Paralympic Games, qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics through the 10 km open water race, and finished sixteenth there. South Africa chose her to carry its flag at both the Olympic and Paralympic opening ceremonies in 2008, and she announced her retirement in 2012.