‘The Michael Phelps of South Africa’

Open water swimmer Natalie du Toit, also the first female amputee to compete in the Olympics, has been getting a lot of love in the US media ahead of tonight’s women’s marathon swim at the Olympics. Here’s USA Today (the soapy claim in the title is from a story in this paper), The New York Times and CNN. I doubt she’ll add to the medal count — South Africa has one silver against the four of neighboring Zimbabwe in the nationalist-driven contest.