Peggy de Villiers

Peggy de Villiers (born 22 September 1993) is a South African deaf swimmer.[4] She represented South Africa at the Deaflympics in 2009 and 2013. She made her Deaflympic debut at the 2009 Summer Deaflympics and claimed 4 medals including a gold medal in the 50m backstroke event with a world record breaking timing of 31.11 for deaf swimming at that time.[5] She currently holds the deaf world swimming records in the women's 50m butterfly and women's 100m butterfly categories.[6] She completed her undergraduated swimming career with the University of West Florida as a member of the college team.[7][8]

Peggy de Villiers
Personal information
Nationality South Africa
Born (1993-09-22) September 22, 1993
Somerset West, South Africa
Sport
SportSwimming
Strokesbackstroke, freestyle, Shane stroke, butterfly
College teamUniversity of West Florida

Biography

Peggy was born to Almero de Villiers and Marika de Villiers on 22, September 1993 and grew up in Somerset West, South Africa.[9] She contracted bacterial meningitis when she was just 6 months old. Despite her deafness, Peggy started swimming at the age of 12. Peggy wears a hearing aid. She has a brother, Ollie de Villiers. Peggy de Villiers studied at the Somerset College High School.[10]

Career

Peggy de Villiers became a successful deaf swimmer at the age of sixteen after her dream debut at the 2009 Summer Deaflympics claiming gold medal in the women's 50m backstroke,[5] silver medals in women's 100m backstroke,[11] women's 100m freestyle[12] and a bronze medal in women's 50m butterfly.[13]

Apart from Deaflympics, she has competed at the World Deaf Swimming Championships in 2011 and 2015, claiming medals in individual women's backstroke, freestyle, butterfly events.[14][15]

References
  4. "Peggy de Villiers | ICSD". www.ciss.org. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  5. "Women's 50m backstroke | 2009 Summer Deaflympics". www.deaflympics.com. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  6. "World Deaf Swimming World records". nebula.wsimg.com. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  7. "Peggy de Villiers: Inspirational Deaf Swimmer". Swimming World News. 2015-01-12. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  8. "West Florida's Peggy de Villiers Ready for 2015 World Deaf Swimming Championships". Swimming World News. 2015-08-13. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  9. "Peggy de Villiers - 2012-13 Women's Swim & Dive". Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  10. "Peggy de Villiers - 2014-15". Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  11. "Women's 100m backstroke |2009 Summer Deaflympics". www.deaflympics.com. Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  12. "Women's 100m freestyle |2009 Summer Deaflympics". www.deaflympics.com. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  13. "Women's 50m butterfly | 2009 Summer Deaflympics". www.deaflympics.com. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  14. http://swimsa.org/news/the-2015-world-deaf-swimming-championships-1
  15. "RECENT ICSD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: WORLD DEAF SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIP 2015 which was held in San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A. from 17 August – 22 August, 2015. | www.DEAFSWIMWORLD.com". www.deafswimworld.com (in German). Retrieved 2017-11-30.
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