Para-swimmer Christian Sadie hopes to compete for a medal at the World Champs

JOHANNESBURG – Para-swimmer Christian Sadie was in impressive form at the SA National Swimming Championships in Gqeberha.
 
 
Sadie swam 28.72 in the S7 50m freestyle to better the national mark of 28.75 seconds he set at the Paris Paralympics, in turn qualifying for the World Para Swimming Championships in September.
 
 
 
“Performance of senior nationals was better than I expected coming into the gala the main aim was to qualify and try to be not too far off my Personal bests it ended up being a very good gala where I had to Swim a personal best in the 50 freestyle and on my personal best in the 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke overall the gala was success and was better than I expected” said Sadie.
 
 
 S7 is for swimmers with movement affected from a low to moderate level in the arms, trunk and legs, moderately down one side, those with short stature, or the absence of limbs.

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 He has radial club hands, meaning that his radius bone is either missing or underdeveloped, and it causes his hands to be bent towards his body. In his case, it is missing, and this means he has shorter forearms.
 
 
“Though I swam on my best times, I noticed that they were key aspects to technique that I had not executed correctly, but had been practising in training therefore my big takeaway is that the things I have identified to change still need some work since I did not execute all of them in my races.”
 
 
Sadie was part of Team SA that brought home 6 medals and 14 African records from the Paris Paralympics, with him breaking 3 of the African records.
 
 
“My 2024 was overall a good year. I swam to a PB (Personal Best) and made five finals at the Paralympics. I would’ve liked greater improvement in 2024, but I’m happy that I improved. Overall, 2024 was a successful year and made me hungry to get even faster.”

The Paralympian tells Eyewitness News he hopes to make great improvements in all his events as we lead up to the and try to compete for a medal at the World Championships.
 
“My funding plans at the moment or I work as a software developer, and this is generally how I support my Swimming career, though at times of competition, I’ve been very privileged that SASCOC has looked after me and the other para swimmers in providing financial support in going to overseas competition. The way in which South Africa can assist is through donations and sponsorships. I am always looking for a way to cover my Swimming expenditure, and with more support, I would be able to prioritise more recovery and better training facilities.”
 
The Para- swimmer represented South Africa at the Tokyo Paralympics, won silver at the World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira, Portugal and also won silver at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast in 2018.