MARK ETHERIDGE: Kat doesn’t know how to give up

If Kat Swanepoel was your average feline she would have long used up all of her nine “lives”.

But this 2020 Tokyo Paralympic swimmer is anything but your average swimmer, nor your average human.

Diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis in the fourth year of studying occupational therapy at Tukkies, and now left with barely no feeling/sensation below her chest, a lesser person would have given up and faded away.

But George-born Swanepoel, now 35, is gritty by nature despite her Grade 1 report saying she’d never be a natural sportsperson.

In a way the writer of that report was right — she’d end up becoming a supernatural sportswoman.

After her diagnosis she refused to give up, instead taking up wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby and winning national colours in both before injuries and progression of her condition saw her having to give them both up.

She’s a latecomer to the pool, and has made no secret that it was not her favourite place as a child. Then again, with a name like Kat, that might have been expected!

“But once I started swimming in 2020 I was easily hooked. I qualified for the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021 but had quite a major setback when my para-swimming classification was changed about three weeks before the games.

“Fortunately I had qualifying times in the SM4 150m IM and the S4 50m backstroke and was given an invitational slot by the IPC to go and compete.

“During this time I also moved coaches, going to Theo Verster [previously she was coached by multi-Paralympian Tadgh Slattery].

Says Verster, who coaches out of Pinnacle College Founders Hill in Modderfontein: “Before Tokyo she asked me if she had a chance and I told her, ‘if you swim you have a chance’. She hadn’t been swimming for long so we made quite a few changes in her backstroke and she ended up fourth in her final which was hugely surprising, given the short length of time she’d been swimming.

“I met her at a few camps before Paralympics and we hit it off immediately. She’s an older swimmer and I just found it incredibly interesting and refreshing, she already knows what she wants in life.”

In purely swimming terms, Verster gives insight into her remarkable progress in the short time Kat’s become a swimmer.

“Going into the 2020 Paralympics she had a time of 3 min 40 sec for the 150m Individual Medley. At the Games she swam about a 3:21 which was a phenomenal job.

“At world champs she went 3:04 for silver [and qualified for the 2024 Paralympics]. At our last gala before nationals she did a 3:03 and then at nationals in Gqeberha she swam 2:56 — which would have been good for silver at the last Paralympics!”

Swanepoel ended up with four SA records and six unofficial African records from her Eastern Cape endeavours.

That 150 IM effort was all the more remarkable given what happened during her warm-up.

“I dislocated and broke my finger in warm-up as I was sprinting freestyle on the left hand side of the lane. I’m completely blind in my left eye so I didn’t realise how close I was to the lane rope and smacked my hand straight into it. 

“I was so mad at myself as we have been especially training the 150m IM and I wanted to go out hard in the race. I tried to relocate my finger but because of the fracture I couldn’t get it back into place and we’re not allowed to swim with any strapping on. I may or may not have said bad words when I pulled up on the block for the start.”

But Verster only has the kindest of words for Kat. “I knew early on that we were on to something special ...

“She’s got such a caring nature, and she’s just part of our squad, she fits in wherever you put her. She’s an amazing person — always checking up on the juniors, giving them her mature advice and input.

“A lesser person would be looking at her own shortcomings but she’s just been amazing for our squad. She rocks up at galas to support the other swimmers and she’s 100% one of our family.”

Apart from the hand hindrance at nationals there was more catastrophe lying in wait for Kat.

Still a full-time occupational therapist, Benoni-based Swanepoel drives 56km to Roodepoort on a daily basis to her place of work. If she can’t work, she doesn’t earn, can’t pay rent and so on, so it’s a daily grind.

The next day after national champs she was involved in a nasty car crash to add insult to her hand injury.

“A car was hit in front of me and came over into my lane. I tried to swerve and brake but went into the back of him. Thankfully I turned the car enough so that most of the impact was on the passenger side but I still managed to break a bone in my left hand (on top of   the finger I broke two days before), sprain both wrists, get whiplash injury and chest wall bruising.”

True to form she was back at work the next day, her parents having lent her their automatic car as she has a set of portable hand controls when she drives. If her own car is written off she’ll have to have a new set of custom-made controls fitted to any replacement vehicle.

“But I’ll be back in the pool sooner rather than later!”

Of course she will be, driven character that she is.

Verster winds up: “We’ll go to France in six weeks or so for reclassification and hopefully they’ll class us down to S3 and open up more events for Paris 2024.

“Kat continuously punches above her weight, whether it’s in or out of the pool.

“Her and I made a pact about a year ago, every single time we meet we celebrate — because she’s still here and with us, and we makes the best of it. We’ve carried forward that frame of mind and our week together at nationals in Gqeberha was extremely special.”

Special seems too simple a word to celebrate a soul like Kat Swanepoel, who, if she were a cat would probably be happy to donate at least eight of her fictional nine lives to people she felt were more in need than her!