The 24-year-old's journey to the start line in Beijing has been an achievement worthy of any Olympic medal. Du Toit yesterday made history as the first amputee to compete at the Olympic Games, finishing 16th in a field of 25.
Du Toit lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident in 2001, a year after narrowly failing to qualify for the Sydney Games. Her leg was amputated at the knee after it began to turn gangrenous.
She was back in the water three months later and yesterday's 10km race was the culmination of her life-long dream to compete at the Olympics.
The five-time Athens Paralympic champion, who gives motivational speeches for a living, admitted she was overcome by emotion before the race and was almost choking up as she later spoke about her journey.
"For me to come to the Olympics Games has been a dream come true," du Toit said.
"To be here, it's been a long road. I have worked hard to get here. I deserve to be here on merit. I don't want to get anything free."
"For my first Olympic race I am a bit disappointed. I didn't have such a good race," said du Toit, who finished 1min 22.2sec behind Russian gold medallist, Larisa Ilchenko.
"Placing 16th is not too bad, but I wanted to come top five.
"But I tried my best and I still have the Paralympics, so I have to keep focused."
Du Toit admitted she had proven doubters wrong that she would never make it to sport's biggest stage, but did not consider herself a campaigner for athletes with a physical disability.
"For me it's not about being able-bodied or disabled, it's all the same to me, I get up and I race. I am not a campaigner, it's just my personal dream and my personal goal," she said.
Du Toit finished one position behind Australian Melissa Gorman, who came 15th in 1min 05.9sec behind Ilchenko (1hr 59min 27.7sec) in only her second major international open water race.
Via Fox Sports
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