By Karla Cloete
Edited by Tasmiyah Randaree
Cornelle Leach tells us about her journey to becoming a Paralympic swimmer after losing her sight as a child.
Correction: The article previously stated Leach's guide dog Vogue is a male. This has been corrected.
Cornelle Leach, born in Mpumalanga, is a swimmer who was diagnosed with a degenerative sight condition called Stargardt's Macular Degeneration in 2008.
Her teachers and school tried their best to accommodate her, especially in sport. The other students wore colorful vests and clothes to help Leach see them, but as her sight deteriorated, it became clear in grade three that she could no longer compete.
"I have always been active, and the realization of giving up a certain passion of mine — sport — was devastating. I decided to swim as a sport. My parents were stunned but supportive,” the 22-year-old explained.
Her mother drove her 50km every day so she could train and be coached in an Olympic standard pool. Her mother was a huge influence in her early career:
She encouraged me when I was at my lowest, drove me to pools 100km away just to train, made sure I ate enough protein when we could barely afford it and always made me feel like an Olympic gold medallist.
Her swimming career took off when she began swimming for the University of Pretoria (TUKS) after she moved to Pretoria. Here she received Olympic-level training in para-swimming.
My swimming career is my destiny. When I started out with this sport, I did not see myself travelling abroad and representing my country.
Since then she has represented South Africa at the World Para Championships in London and broken many records, including the 50m Freestyle S12, the 100m Freestyle S12, the 100m Breaststroke S12.
Currently, she is training for the upcoming Paralympic Games in July, with the teams being announced in May. She is also completing her BCOM Tourism Management honors degree. Leach intends to continue her studies with a P.h.D specializing in Sports Tourism. She also dreams of someday building her own stadium where the Olympics can be held.
In addition, Leach leads a very active lifestyle. She indulges in hiking, rowing, horse riding, camping, and traveling when she’s not training. She will, however, sit still for a good romance novel, although Stephan King's Dr. Sleep is her (very unromantic) favorite book.
But it wasn’t always easy. Leach remembers a low point in her swimming career:
Everything changed when I went to university. The coach discriminated against me. I was not allowed to train with the team nor did I receive any support whatsoever from them.
She received training from an independent qualified fellow swimmer instead, who sadly couldn’t continue due to work obligations.
She represented her university for three years but had to train alone with another coach’s program, despite re-applying to get the training she needed.
Now I am training with an Olympic coach who supports me and has my best interests at heart. We are currently preparing for the Paralympics and cannot wait to see what will happen!
With her full-time studies in tow, training for the Paralympics is no small feat.
She does weight training and swims six times a week. She swims with 5kg weights strapped to her. Her swimming training focuses mainly on building strength, speed and increasing her endurance. She is also encouraged to maintain a healthy lifestyle and diet daily.
One of the challenges of her training and improving her stroke was sighted coaches.
Most coaches or people make use of very general terms like ‘this’, ‘that’, and ‘there’. Sometimes my ‘this’ and ‘that’ does not match their ‘this’ and ‘that’. It’s all reversed. It's also difficult to watch YouTube videos about certain strokes, because for obvious reasons… I cannot watch videos.
In Leach’s journey with various coaches she’s learned that building a relationship with them is very important and over time, her coaches also learned to use more precise, descriptive language.
Vogue, her four-year-old guide dog, has been one of Leach’s greatest aids. The black Labrador loves to attend to her galas and steal the spotlight.
Before Vogue came into her life, Leach did not like to go out and remained isolated as she struggled to navigate her way through the world. That all changed when she finally got her guide dog after some initial reluctance.
I think the hardest part of being blind is accepting it. Getting a guide dog was the acceptance point for me.
Vogue enabled her to be more independent and social. She will be competing in the Guide Dog Association’s Pup-lympics.
Leach says although she has more freedom now, thanks to a helping paw from Vogue, the hardest part of her deteriorating sight is the difficulties that come with daily travel. From depending on others to take her around or trying to find Bolt drivers that allow guide dogs, her mobility is often hampered and her options expensive.
Leach credits her mother, her coaches, and mentors, including fellow Paralympic athlete Hendrik Van der Merwe, as key role players in her success. Most importantly, she also credits herself and all her hard work:
I shaped myself to be the swimmer I am today. I decided that I wanted to become a Paralympic swimmer and I put in the time and effort to get there. It's sad but it’s true when I say that the only person you can rely on is yourself. You must take responsibility for your goals and ambitions and it is up to you to achieve them.
Leach also discussed her feelings around the negative perceptions often directed at para-sport as being “less prestigious than able-bodied sports”, saying that she strongly disagrees with these ideas.
I challenge those who think that any impairment is dismissible: for one week don’t make use of that sense, wear a blind fold or put your arm in a sling. Even to refrain from talking. You will see that you are so dependent on that sense even though you thought you did not use it as often.
She said women are additionally discouraged from sport and that women with disabilities, in particular, are infantilized.
We are dependents, but we are more independent in some cases than abled bodies are.
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