大象传媒

Beijing

It was a at the Beijing Paralympics. The 24-year-old South African, , was entered in five events at the Water Cube - it would have been six but for an administration error that meant she missed the 100m backstroke - and won them all.

With the S9 100m butterfly, 100m freestyle and 400m freestyle and 50m freestyle on the menu, along with the SM9 200m individual medley, it was a hectic schedule for du Toit but one she took, like everything else, with typical stoicism and humility.

She won each of her heats, then triumphed in all of her five finals, setting three world records en route on what she called an "emotional rollercoaster".

It has been a busy time for .

Not only did she compete in last month's Olympic open water event, finishing a creditable 16th, she also carried her nation's flag at both the - the first person to do so.

in her second Paralympics after five golds and a silver in Athens four years ago - and, once again, she delivered in style.

Du Toit first came to prominence at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, reaching the final of the 800m as well as winning two golds in the multi-disability events.

Since then, she has become one of South Africa's top sporting personalities, disability swimming's best-known figure worldwide and has been re-writing the record books on a regular basis.

She dominates her S9 category, traditionally one of the keenest contested at Paralympic level, and her times look set to remain on the books for a long time to come as she continues to knock seconds off her marks here and there.

Du Toit is a powerful figure. Her forte, just as it was before her accident, is the longer endurance events - hence her strength in open water.

At Paralympic level, her longest race is the 400m freestyle. In that final - her fourth in Beijing - she put on a magnificent display as she powered through the water almost effortlessly.

The , as she is known in the South African media, went off strongly and eventually finished almost 16 seconds clear of the rest of the field, led by Canada's Stephanie Dixon.

She had, as 大象传媒 Five Live reporter Chris Mitchell put it, "enough time to get out of the pool, make a cup of tea, drink it, get back in the water and still win gold."

While Du Toit was utterly dominant over 400m, it was a different story in the 50m freestyle in which she had to fight all the way before securing her fifth gold.

"Everyone will be going flat out and it will be anybody's race," she said beforehand. "I'm slower than the other girls off the blocks and I need to find another 0.3 of a second to make up on them in the sprint."

She was visibly nervous before the race and, with both Russia's Irina Grazhdanova and Annabelle Williams looking strong in the opening 25m, was in danger of a first defeat at the Water Cube.

But her fighting spirit, which has seen her through many difficult occasions throughout her life, came out strongly.

She has been working hard in training on her starts but also her finishes - and that was what helped to get her through, beating Grazhdanova by 0.13 seconds with Britain's Louise Watkin taking a surprise bronze.

The triumph brought the curtain down on a highly successful meet for the inspirational Du Toit, who always remains polite and courteous in her dealings with the media, even when asked the same questions time and time again.

The medals are certainly important to Du Toit, who is targeting a place in the pool events at the 2012 London Olympics, but she remains typically down to earth about her achievements here.

"Just getting out there and racing the girls who I raced in Athens has been a real highlight for me," she told me. "It has been amazing and now I can go home and have a break.

"We usually have a break in April but I had open water races in May and then the Paralympic World Cup, so I didn't have a break then.

"After the emotional rollercoaster of the Olympics and the Paralympics, to get home and switch off and do some reading and other things I can't do when I am training will do me good."

And nobody could deny her a well-earned rest.