I've written previously about the Olympic dreams of Oscar Pistorius, the South African sprinter and double amputee. Pistorius runs with the aid of prosthetic lower limbs, and the legality of these devices has been a matter of scientific and philosophical debate.
But I completely missed the story of Natalie Du Toit, a South African swimmer and single-leg amputee. Du Toit swims without a prosthesis and on May 3 she qualified for the Beijing Olympics by finishing fourth in the 10km race in the Open Water World Championships in Seville, Spain.
Du Toit surprise at Beijing place
An aspiring world-class swimmer before a collision with a car destroyed her left leg in 2001, Du Toit has never abandoned her dream of competing at the Olympics. Somehow it seems fitting that she would qualify in the 10k open water swim -- which will be contested for the first time in Beijing -- as it is the most grueling swimming event on the program.
On her web site, Du Toit lists two goals: one, to swim in the Olympics, and two, to be able to run. One down, one to go.
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