PARALYMPICS 2024: Paralympic champion Pieter du Preez hopes to leave his mark at Paris Games
The athlete competes in the H1 category in para-cycling which is for athletes with highly affected movement in the trunk, legs and hands.
Para-athlete Pieter du Preez will represent South Africa at the 2024 Paralympics. Picture: Jacques Nelles/ Eyewitness News.
JOHANNESBURG – Paralympic champion Pieter du Preez is participating in his third Paralympics in Paris.
The C6 quadriplegic finished sixth at the 2012 London Games in the 400-meter wheelchair track racing and won a gold medal in the para-cycling at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, which were moved to 2021 due to COVID-19.
"My first Paralympic Games were in London, 2012 but there, the only event for my class was the sprint in athletics, where I finished six in the final, which wasn't bad for an endurance athlete. But then in 2016 for the Rio Paralympic Games, I qualified, and I did everything. I probably would have medaled. There was actually a 400 meters, but unfortunately, I wasn't in the team," said Du Preez.
He tells Eyewitness News that at the Rio Paralympic Games, he would have gone for para-cycling for the first time but there were administration issues which ended up with his classes being removed from the Games.
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"But then Tokyo, I finally raced in cycling, which is an endurance event, which is down my alley, you know. And obviously, there I can go for medals because that's my thing. And ja, I mean, look, it was a gold medal in Tokyo," said Du Preez.
The athlete competes in the H1 category in para-cycling, which is for athletes with highly affected movement in the trunk, legs and hands.
Supa Piet, as he's affectionately known, was nominated for the Laureus World Sports Awards in 2016, has won the Berlin Marathon more than six times and is a multiple African and world record holder, a world champion, and he only has 15% of the muscle function of an able-bodied person due to a cycling accident in 2003.
"I don't have to be triceps muscle at the back, can't move my hands or fingers at all, and completely paralysed from the chest down. And I think it's important to also mention those aren't the only things."
The actuarial analyst at Deloitte South Africa said that muscle issues weren’t the only things he dealt with beyond the wheelchair and limited movement.
"I can't get my heart rate up, so my max heart rate is about 120, even if I go as hard as I can. So that's a big difference between quadriplegics versus paraplegics. And then I also don't sweat at all. When it's really hot, I can overheat, so I need to find ways to cool myself down. And the last thing with that is that I also have quite low blood pressure."
He was the first quadriplegic in the world to partake in and complete the Ironman Triathlon in 2013.
"I'm losing my eyesight, but I was born with that, so it's a degenerative eye disease called Choroideremia. So we were diagnosed with me and my older brother when I was in matric."
Choroideremia is an inherited disease that causes progressive loss of vision due to degeneration of cell layers in the retina
"Strangely, I call it my superpower, because already, from then, my mindset around it was that one day I know I'm going to be completely blind, so I need to use my eyes to the best of my ability, for what I need my eyes for, for as long as I can. So for me, it was a motivator."
Du Preez scooped a gold medal in the time trial at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow and is the current defending champion with his rainbow jersey tally at six in the individual time trial.