Games: One leg, two golds - hail the Queen of the Games
By Doug Conway, Senior Correspondent
MANCHESTER, Aug 2 AAP - Ian Thorpe is the undisputed King of the Commonwealth Games.
Surely Natalie du Toit qualifies as a Queen.
The South African teenager came last in her 800m final.
The thing is, though, she has one leg.
That she made the final at all, competing on level terms against able-bodied swimmers,was an achievement every bit as inspirational as Thorpe's five gold medals from five swims.
In qualifying she went within a second of the best time she had recorded before losingher left leg at the knee in a car accident 18 months ago.
In the final she was a second slower.
Never before had able-bodied finalists looked across to see one of their rivals takeoff a prosthetic leg and hop to the blocks.
Twenty-five minutes earlier, she had won a gold medal in the 100m multi-disabilityfreestyle, adding to the 50m title she won a few days ago.
Du Toit epitomises the spirit that pushes human beings to reach heights once undreamt of.
Having appeared as a 14-year-old at Kuala Lumpur in 1998, she is the only athlete tocompete in both able-bodied and disabled events at a Games.
Even more remarkably, she has done so at the same Games.
She is also the first athlete lacking a limb to make the final of an able-bodied eventin any sport.
Considering these are the first Games to include disabled events, she represents abridge between the two that once seemed a bridge too far away.
As such she is surely one of the faces of Manchester 2002.
"I hope it ties a bond between us," she said.
"There's nothing wrong with disabled. They didn't ask to be there.
"I have always thought things happen for a reason, that there are stepping stones in one's life."
She regards the water as "a gift that gives me back my leg".
"I remember the thrill of the first time that I swam after the operation," she said.
"It felt like my leg was there. It still does.
"Swimming was my life, and it still is."
AAP dc/sp
KEYWORD: GAMES QUEEN
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