ZULULAND swimming phenomenon Simoné Mare of Richards Bay is set to obliterate records when she hits the national swimming championships later this month.
The swift ascent of the 15 year-old wonder is nothing short of a miracle, considering she lives with cerebral palsy owing to her traumatic birth, during which the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, causing perinatal hypoxia.
Simone only started walking with a walking frame when she was four years old and is classified as disabled.
Yet, she participated in one of Zululand’s most prestigious swimming events, the Ushaka Championships, where she competed against able bodied swimmers in the freestyle, butterfly and breaststroke events, bagging two silver and two bronze medals.
In January she participated in the KANZA Provincial Championships in Durban, winning all five her events and earning five golden medals.
She is now heading for the SA Championships from 19 to 22 March, participating in seven events and her times are significantly faster than current records.
Ushaka Swimming School coach Francois Boshoff has been coaching her for the past two years and says she has improved remarkably in a very short period of time.
‘She is exceptionally talented and has an awesome fighting spirit.
‘She will now compete in the nationals and then we will work our way up to the 2020 Olympics. Her chances of making it are excellent.’
Big match temperament
Simoné is also described as having ‘big match temperament’ and not getting rattled when the pressure is on.
Her mother, Cusilia Swart, says her journey has not been easy.
During birth, her heart stopped twice and she was hospitilised for a significant time. She also developed epileptic fits.
When she was eight months old, she was still not able to sit and started water therapy and swimming classes when she was 10 months old in the hope of improving her condition and muscle tone.
‘It was then that we realised she was a water baby – she could swim before she could walk.’
‘Epilepsy, neck and lower back spasms, migraines and cerebral palsy do not stop her from giving her best. She sometimes loses strength in her legs, which causes her to fall, but she gets back up.
‘Her treatment will be a lifelong process of swimming, physiotherapy and biokinetics and she dreams of one day opening her own swimming school for disabled children.
Simoné is attending the Dynamic Kids home schooling programme in Richards Bay.
The school works around all her health issues, rigorous training programme and swimming events.
‘I used to cry easily, but everything which happened in my life only made me stronger,’ the determined youngster says.
