DEFYING THE ODDS:
Michael Swartz, 24, who is deaf, has made waves with his achievements in the pool, taking on able-bodied competitors and emerging victorious. Competing at the SA Masters National Swimming Championships held in East London last weekend, he won 11 medals – seven gold, three silver and one bronze – as well as winning a gold medal in his age group at the Open Water Championships at Wriggleswade Dam, near Stutterheim.
BORN deaf, Michael Swartz has made waves with his achievements in the pool, taking on able-bodied competitors and coming out on top.
The remarkable 24-yearold competed at the SA Masters National Swimming Championships in East London last weekend in 11 events and won 11 medals – seven gold, three silver and one bronze – and also at the Open Water at Wriggleswade Dam, winning a gold medal in his age group.
Swartz has defied the odds not only in the pool, but he has also won SA champion titles for horse riding, and reached the semi-finals of the SA’s Got Talent competition where he did fire dancing.
His mother, Sandy Swartz, said it has been a long road for the family based on a farm, with Swartz also overcoming a muscle-tone disorder. Through horse riding and occupational therapy, his mom says the youngster could ride horses before he could walk. At 18 months, he received a cochlear implant, to no avail.
After the family raised money for a second implant when Swartz was 19, they were told he has no auditory nerves and would never be able to hear. Through creating books and home schooling, he was taught how to communicate primarily through sign language and lip reading.
“We are floored that he has done so well. He got up at 4am to train, he went to gym and worked with his horses. He has worked very hard for this,” she said.
Swartz said deafness is always a feeling of being left out and lonely and sometimes being made to feel “stupid”.
“I realised from a young age that I had to adapt to the hearing world and do something for myself and make a difference in my own life. I want to make a difference in other disabled people’s lives by being a role model and showing them we can do everything except hear. I would like to give other lonely people hope,” Swartz said.
He now teaches hearingabled people sign language. While still looking for accommodation, Swartz has been offered a job opportunity in the hospitality sector in Cape Town.
“My immediate plan is to be self-supporting. One day I will buy a farm where I can keep my horses and Boston terrier dogs. I am still a farm boy at heart,” he said.