Kat Swanepoel recovering after eye removal surgery

The entire SASAPD family’s thoughts and prayers are with South Africa’s para swimming star and flagbearer at the 2024 Paralympics, Kat Swanepoel, after eye removal surgery last week.

Kat broke five South African records at the SA Short Course Championships in Pietermaritzburg earlier this month, after which she revealed she’d received the devastating news. “Trust the Process. Trust the Plan. Trust the Vision. This is what I tell myself every time I am at the blocks and ready to race. I remind myself that whatever I am about to do is just a small part of a greater plan. Then I breathe out and smile.

"Tomorrow I will be needing to apply my racing skill set to my everyday life as I undergo surgery to remove my left eye. I am in shock. I am scared. But I am choosing to view this as a small part in the greater plan. So I breathe out and smile.We travel by faith and not by sight,” Kat posted on social media.”

Afterward the surgery she posted: "Done and dusted and slowly learning the Pirates' Code. Thank you to everyone who has checked in, sent love, sent encouragement, sent prayers etc etc. I couldn't begin to face what I face without all of you.

“Thank you for such an outpouring of love and support. When I heard the news I felt like things were crashing down but I know it's just another opportunity for the phoenix to rise.”

The inspirational para swimmer is a two-time Paralympian from Tokyo and Paris and has always been one to apply the positive things in life.

“Someone recently said to me how sorry she was for some of the hardships that I have been dealt. I surprised myself by answering her that I was grateful for the sense of fulfillment that my life's climb had brought me. Without the deep valleys, the peaks would lose their grandeur. Without darkness, light loses its significance. Without despair, hope would be meaningless. And man, it certainly feels good to be climbing again,” she posted on her social media accounts recently.

To read (or listen) to Kat Swanepoel speaking to sports writer Gary Lemke at the Tokyo Paralympics, for her earlier background story, read this link on our website:

https://sasapd.org.za/news/kat-swanepoel-superwoman-who-swims-for-hope