Natalie Du Toit

Natalie Du Toit Born on the 29 January 1984 in Cape Town South Africa. Completed her Scholastic years at Reddam House in Cape Town. Natalie started swimming and winning at an early age.

At the age of 9 Natalie won all her events; u9 backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle and was declared the Top swimmer of the Day. Having competed at the Kuala Lumpur Games in 1998 as an ablebodied athlete, at the age of 16, she lost her leg in a motorcycle accident. Despite this setback, she was determined to compete at the Manchester Games as an able-bodied and disabled competitor just to prove it could be done.

She achieved her goal, swimming into a creditable eighth place in the able-bodied 800 m Freestyle and winning Gold in the 50 and 100 m Elite Athletes with Disability (EAD) events. Since then, Natalie has become one of the most successful disabled athletes of all time and an inspiration to many. On the 3rd May 2008, Natalie competed in the Open Water World Championships in Seville Spain. Her 4th place guaranteed her place at the Beijing Olympics. Natalie has been nominated and accepted by the World Economic Forum for the Young Leaders role. History was made on the 20th of August 2008, when Natalie was the first disabled swimmer to dive into the Shunyi Rowing Basin in Beijing. As number 23 she competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games 1st 10 km women open water marathon.

Her 16th Place was marked as a most remarkable effort by her fellow Open water competitors, media from all over the world were interested in this historic race. The 2008 Paralympic Games were just as special for Natalie, she was nominated by the team as the flag bearer, and once again history was made. She is the 1st person in the world to have carried the National flag at both Olympics and Paralympic games.

Natalie managed to win Five out of Five races and made South Africa proud when she was nominated and received the Whang Youn Dai Achievement Award, at the Paralympic Games. Her success continued to make headlines when she spoke at the EU Parliament in Brussels and the Ethics in leadership award was handed to her. 2009 was a great year for Natalie; she managed to break her personal goal in swimming the 10 km FINA women marathon in under 1hr 57min in Dubai. She became SA Open Water women marathon champion as well as the 1500 m freestyle champion.

She was nominated by the IEC (Electoral Commission) to be their Ambassador. Natalie performed her duties and helped with SA democratic process and made time available for to help educate the In December 2009 president Zuma awarded her “The Order of Ikhamanga in Gold – for her exceptional achievements and her unparalleled merit in the South African Sporting Arena.” 5 Gold 1 Silver and a Bronze were won in Eindhoven at the IPC World Champs, two weeks later she swam 3 S9 events at the Commonwealth Games and returned home with 3 more Gold medals. London 2012, time to retire after 3 Gold medals and 1 Silver, once again made South Africa proud by remaining the most decorated SA Paralympian swimmer, with an overall 13 Gold and 2 silver medals Retirement saw Natalie leave the swimming industry, something that has always been a goal for her and allowing her to focus on venturing into the business world. In 2014 Natalie started her working life in Reputation Management, A show called Women.Sports.Talk on SuperSport 4 was born in 2015 – A first of its kind in South Africa that sees Natalie as the field presenter alongside Cynthia Tshaka.

The MBE award was presented by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex on the 5th October 2013 SELF DEVELOPMENT COURSES AND ACHIEVEMENTS 2016 – Cereba Social Media for Marketing 2017 – Presented with the WOA Certificate 2019 – IPC Academy – Agitos Mentorship Course 2019 – Paralympic Educator – Certificate of Mentorship 2021 – UCT Digital Marketing Course 2022 – Red and Yellow Digital Content and copywriting Looking to the future, Natalie wishes to inspire all South African’s young and old that anything is achievable by achieving against all odds. Her lifelong dream is to focus on the management and strategising of social media with a return on investment that is further harnessed by being an influencer.

Sport will always remain dear to her heart and she has understood that people associate her with the sporting industry, hence the sports show, the ambassadorial role as a Laureus Ambassador which she has been a part of since 2004. Despite her professional achievements and leadership responsibilities, Anda remains deeply family-oriented. She is a devoted mother of three and a supportive partner to her husband, cherishing the balance between her personal and professional life. .