CATHERINE VAN STADEN had always been a sporty person but her diagnosis of spastic paralysis gave her reason to doubt her capabilities and give up the activities she had so enjoyed.

It was 15 years after she had given up sport that she made the decision to set herself the challenge of swimming a mile. Working for a disability organisation had inspired her to believe that life does not stop after a serious diagnosis and she went on to complete the swim.

She has since competed in triathlons and continues to train hard to fulfil her dreams of making it to the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and competing in an Ironman. 

When did your passion for sport and the outdoors first begin?

I think some of us in life are just born with the ‘sport gene’. I know I was, my love for sports and the outdoors began at a very young age. Playing any sport I could, from tennis, baseball, hockey, netball and even soccer. My childhood years are remembered as a time when all I could do was play sports. My dream as a child was to become a professional sports star, and my hero was the German tennis player, Steffi Graff.

Could you tell us about how your disability began to affect your dreams and ambitions for the future?

My dreaming began at a young age, I planted seed after seed, dreaming of competing in sports, dreaming of running like the wind, dreaming of taking my little hope of competing in sports and turning it into a reality. The problem came in with my body and my disability that I have and have had to work through and find some hope again.

I have a degenerative disease in my legs called spastic paralysis. Over time my legs become weaker and weaker and my balance becomes worse and worse, till such a time that I lose all my function in my legs and I end up in a wheelchair.

For my entire life a wheelchair to me meant the end of life, a wheelchair did not represent freedom to me – it represented a prison. My biggest fear in life was a wheelchair, this thought was killing my dreams and ambitions in life and for many years I allowed it to do just that. 

In 2012 there was a change in your way of thinking? What caused this change and how has it changed the course of your life so far?

The year 2012 I joined CBM, an International Disability Organisation (www.cbm.org), my ideas of my disability started changing, as I began working on a project that was supplying wheelchairs to disadvantaged people with disabilities. Suddenly I began to see how a wheelchair can give someone freedom instead of being this dis-enabling device I always thought it was.

Working for CBM began showing me that having a disability is not the end of the world, in fact, it is the beginning of a new life, I just needed to see that and make the change in my mind, and realise a disability is not bad in fact, I need to use what I have to begin dreaming again and not giving into my fears. 

Could you tell us more about your journey into the sport of triathlon and some of the successes you’ve had?

I quit sports for nearly 15 years, but in December 2012 I decide it was time to pick it up again. So I signed up for a swim which happens in South Africa called the Mid Mar Mile. I got a personal trainer to work with and in eight weeks, I set off to go swim a mile. I remember getting in the water thinking what am I doing, can I really swim this far, half way through the swim, I kept telling myself you can do this, and when I reached the end, it dawned on me, I can do anything I set my mind to.

Being who I am, I decided to seek out the next challenge, and discovered triathlons. When I first started out, I was swimming, using a trike for cycle and trying to walk the run section. After about three triathlons with this way of racing, I had to make some decisions, because my legs were just not playing the part in getting me through the cycle and the run section.

A major decision can change the entire dream, I decided to face my biggest fear and get a wheelchair, not an everyday wheelchair but a racing wheelchair, to be used for the run section of the race. I then decided to get a hand cycle, this meant that the entire race would now be done with my arms. 

It has been an amazing journey to conquer fears and take on more than I ever dreamed of. My style of training and racing is now different, I am focusing in on my strengths, which is my arms and not on my weakness which is my legs. 

How often are you currently training and what competitions do you have in your sights?

I train up to six days a week, three of those days there is a double session, one in morning one in the evening. 

For 2015 I have four races lined up, in fact these will be my first races with my new equipment, so it is an exciting year ahead. 

My plan for the next three years is to race competitively as I can and try get to the Commonwealth Games in 2018, and eventually complete a full Ironman. 

In what areas of triathlon do you excel and where do you find you have to work the hardest?

Swimming is definitely the part I excel in, and find it the easiest part of the race, although I have yet to race with my new hand-cycle and wheelchair. I feel that because I am focusing in on my strength which is my arms and not on my legs which is my weakness, I will excel in all three areas!

What would your message me to others affected by a disability but who are struggling to come to terms with it and look to people like yourself for inspiration?

I can make and do make many excuses or as a friend of mine equates it to at times ‘trash talking’, where I talk myself down and tell myself life is pointless if I have a disability, I am disabled, I just can’t do this, and what difference does it make, my legs just don’t want to work today, maybe they will tomorrow. But wait tomorrow won’t come, my goal in the reality of my world seems so unrealistic and impossible, so just forget about it.

Then I take a quick stock of my dream and goal and realise it’s time to stop talking and go train because at this stage, my disability is there so let’s use this opportunity for something good, reality is my legs generally don’t feel like working so might as well just keep going, the goal is only impossible if I turn around and walk away, the only turning I will be doing is my arms in swimming, cycling and running towards the impossible.

Having said all that realities still come and at times I have a ‘sometimes’ days… What is a ‘sometimes’ day?

Sometimes they just don’t work, my legs I mean.

Sometimes I don’t feel like going to gym.

Sometimes I don’t feel like going swimming when it’s freezing cold and raining.

Sometimes I can walk 5km, sometimes I can hardly walk four steps.

Sometimes I can gym easily for an hour, sometimes ten minutes feels like an hour.

Sometimes I feel I can conquer the world, sometimes the world tries to conquer me.

Sometimes everything goes as planned, sometimes the plan just doesn’t work.

Sometimes the scripture “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” is my only power for those sometimes days.

Sometimes I wonder what have I got myself into in trying to do triathlons.

Sometimes I just want to be ‘normal’ with no disability…but what is ‘normal’.

I know that I have sometimes days, you know what we all do, some maybe more than others. The thing is I am learning and realizing that in those sometimes days there is always something deep down in each of us that can ‘ALLTHE TIME’ take the ‘SOMETIMES’ and continue on.

And trust me it’s not in my strength but in God’s strength because when I am weak He is strong!

Whether you have a disability or not, dream on and never give up and use what you have to conquer what seems impossible, because with little steps big mountains can be conquered and we can all continue on our limitless pursuits.