Earns silver in the 100 m freestyle S9 at London 2012, her final Paralympic medal before retirement.
On 6 September 2012, Natalie du Toit won silver in the 100 m freestyle S9 at the London Paralympics, rounding out her final Paralympic medal haul. By then a veteran of three Games, she finished just short of another gold yet added one more podium finish to an already exceptional career.
German and English Wikipedia accounts list this silver as her last Paralympic medal before retirement. Coming in an event she had dominated in Athens and Beijing, the result illustrated both the rise of new competitors and the inevitable transitions even the greatest athletes face.
The race is historically significant as a marker of closure to one of Paralympic swimming’s most illustrious careers. Her London silver, coupled with her earlier 2012 golds, underscored that she remained at the top of the sport to the very end, leaving a legacy of high standards for future S9 sprinters and a rich record for historians and statisticians of Paralympic sport.