du Toit’s Olympic dream

03 Dec, 2017 - 00:12 0 Views
du Toit’s  Olympic dream

The Sunday Mail

She grew up loving BMX racing but an encounter with rowing changed all that for the good.

That is the story of Daniella du Toit whose chance encounter with the Zimbabwe queens of the water Kirsty Coventry and Micheen Thornycroft changed her life forever and now finds her practically inseparable from the water.

Coventry is a double Olympian champion while Thornycroft has made appearances at London 2012 and Rio 2016 games. As for du Toit, the 20-year-old Zimbabwean rower now dreams of fulfilling her destiny at Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics.

“I have had the privilege of meeting Kirsty Coventry before and training with Micheen Thornycroft in the past” she said.

“There is something special about meeting past Olympians and hearing their success stories, it inspires you to strive for more.

“Everyone has very different backgrounds and that is part of what makes each Olympic story special and different,” said du Toit.

She is studying for a dual degree in Kinesiology and Nutrition at the University of Massachusetts Amherst until 2019 and her preparation for Tokyo has been boosted by a Scholarship grant from the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee.

“It will help me get the best training to improve my performance over the next few years.

“I will also be able to get more racing exposure which is an important part of preparation leading up to Tokyo 2020.”

But she knows she has to put in the hours.

“When I think of Tokyo 2020, I am reminded of my experience at the Youth Olympics in 2014 and I look forward to the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.

“I look forward to pushing myself harder. I love training to get stronger and reach new heights,” she said.

du Toit has been in fine form for her University, together with her partner Grace Bundy as the two reached the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships.

“We raced in the Championship double, an open event, and came in seventh out of 20 boats.

“We were the second collegiate boat to finish crossing the line with only a one second difference between the first collegiate boat from Washington and ourselves,” she said.

Away from the water, du Toit’s other passion include public speaking.

“If I weren’t a rower, I would probably be a motivational speaker.

“I love encouraging people to do their best and go for greatness. It is an art that comes natural to her, but not so much when it comes to self-motivation.

“There are definitely days where it is harder to motivate myself than others, but that’s when the energy from the team comes in handy,” said the Harare born and bred rower.

“I was a very active child and started racing BMX at a young age, I raced for about seven years as well as a participating in sports at school. I remember going to different schools for grade six orientation and I heard that some of them offered rowing.

“It was then that I decided that I wanted to try rowing, my love for rowing grew after my first rowing stroke, I have been addicted since then,” she said.

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