Kat Swanepoel has her sights on 2023 World Champs

JOHANNESBURG – Paralympic swimmer Kat Swanepoel has her sights on next year's World Athletics Championships.

Eyewitness News caught up with the 35-year-old who let us in on her sporting journey, and her highlights as she gears up for 2023.

The para-athlete has a progressive degenerative form of multiple sclerosis which she acquired in her fourth year studying occupational therapy in 2008.

“I have an auto-immune condition called Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (PPMS), where my immune system attacks my central nervous system, causing paralysis amongst other issues."

Her disability has other underlying issues which aren’t as visible such as being paralysed from the chest down, going blind in one eye, and having her body get progressively weaker to where she now has no sensation or movement from her chest down, or half of her arms.

When fatigued she also struggles with speech as parts of her brain, optic nerves, and spinal cord can be affected by her disease. She has had a stroke and seizures aren't uncommon.

This, however, has not scaled back her sporting dreams.

Swanepoel said she has always been active, having started playing sports from a young age.

“I was exposed to para-sport through my training as an Occupational Therapist and I started playing wheelchair basketball about a year after becoming a full-time wheelchair user and have since mainly been involved in wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby.

She has previously represented South Africa in both wheelchair rugby and wheelchair basketball. It was while she was playing basketball that she earned her South African colours - which was to be the first of three sports.

Currently her sports of choice is swimming - something she started just before the Covid-19 lockdown.

“I think I am one of the few athletes where the Covid-19 pandemic has actually benefited my career as I only started swimming in December 2019. The year delay of the paralympic games gave me a greater opportunity to qualify and prepare”.

Swanepoel has represented South Africa at the Tokyo Paralympic Games. She also raked in medals and broke African records at the World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira, Portugal in June.

“I have several highlights in my sporting career, like wearing the green and gold the first time ever and singing the national anthem at my first world champs for wheelchair basketball and being awarded the best 2-point player and rookie of the tournament at the Asia-Oceania Wheelchair Rugby cup as the only female.

"And more recently smashing what I thought was possible and taking 12 sec off my then PB in the 50m backstroke final at the Tokyo Paralympics, missing out on the bronze medal by 0.5sec,” beamed Swanepoel.

She credits her sporting success to, among others, her coach - Theo Verster.

“One of the biggest role players in my team is my coach - Theo Verster and he has taught me so many lessons but two of the main ones are that you are worthy no matter what the result, and that we all have a story to tell.

"We are blessed to have the sporting stage as our platform for share this with others. I am also blessed with incredible teammates, colleagues, friends and family,” said the paralympian.

READ: Sadie, Swanepoel bag silver medals at World Para Swimming Championships

She hopes to continue competing nationally and internationally, in 2023 and beyond.

“My next focus is World Champs next year as this is when we need to perform so as to earn as many competition slots for SA swimmers for Paris 2024 as possible. And then the big one that I would love to be able to compete in is the next paralympic games in 2024”.