| Other | Natalie competed at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 as an able-bodied athlete. In February 2001 her left leg was amputated below the knee following an accident. She had just finished swimming practice and was riding her scooter to school when a car drove into her. Within a few months of leaving hospital she was back in the swimming pool.
At the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games Natalie qualified for the 800m Freestyle final - the first time in history that an athlete with a disability had qualified for the final of an able-bodied event.
She also won gold in the multi-disability 50m and 100m Freestyle races, setting new world record times in each.
Natalie narrowly missed qualifying for the Athens Olympics in 2004 and has her sights set on the next Olympics in Beijing, 2008, hoping to partake in the 1500m freestyle.
At the 2003 All-Africa Games, competing against able-bodied swimmers, Natalie won gold in the 800m Freestyle. At the Afro-Asian Games in the same year, again competing against able-bodied swimmers, she took silver in the 800m Freestyle and bronze in the 400m Freestyle.
At the closing of the Manchester Games Natalie was presented with the first David Dixon award for the outstanding Athlete of the Games.
In 2004, Natalie was studying for a Bachelor of Science degree, specializing in genetics and physiology, at the University of Cape Town. |