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'It's magic' Former jail keeper now guarding Paralympic gold
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Fanie Lombaard moves about with the swagger of a pro who knows he's just made good on producing his very best when it really counted. As he half marches and half skips past the grand stand, waving to the crowd and holding up three fingers - representing his three gold medals and his three world records at the Sydney Paralympics - his slight limp is almost undetectable. His habit of slinging a leg over his shoulder, however, is a giveaway. Lombaard had the lower half of his left leg amputated after a horrific rugby injury. He jokes about having five legs now, all with a different purpose: the right leg, in original condition, plus sport-specific artificial legs that he attaches to his left knee, including a javelin leg, a discus leg, a cycling leg, and a long jump leg. The amputation robbed the South African of his job and of a promising rugby career, but it hasn't stopped him from working as a professional sportsman. It just meant he had to find another sport to pursue. "After I had the amputation I decided not to dwell on what could have been," he says. "I decided to be the first disabled athlete to become a millionaire through sports." Lombaard is reluctant to say if he's achieved his financial objectives, but he admits that with a corporate sponsor he can live a comfortable existence. "I'm very fortunate in that I was a professional sportsman before [the amputation]," he said. "I'm training with able-bodied athletes. They don't see me as disabled; they just see me as an athlete. "When we do weights, I can do 215-kilogram (473 pounds) squats and 205 (451 pounds) bench press. I have a maximum about 500 kg (1,100 pounds) on the leg press ... I have a prosthetic, so I'm still getting power out of two legs. "And that's another thing - everyone believes you should adapt to your disability, I think that's wrong. Your disability has to adapt to you. As soon as you can get that motto going, it's magic." Lombaard clinched the discus gold medal Thursday in the F42 class, hurling out a 47.08-meter throw to overhaul his existing world mark of 46.85. He'd already won the Pentathlon and shot put gold medals and still has the javelin to contest Saturday. Playing for South Africa in the 1992 Rugby League World Cup sevens tournament, Lombaard picked up an infection after injuring his knee at the Sydney Football Stadium. He returned to South Africa, where he later tore the ligaments in his knee while training in the Northern Transvaal. The damaged ligaments became infected from his original scrape and hours later he was in hospital and surgeons were cutting away dead flesh around his calf muscle. Lombaard said he went through a year with what amounted to a dead leg but couldn't bear it when his toes started to wither away and he decided to have the leg amputated. "It was good really, making the choice myself," he said. "It was pointless having a leg if I couldn't use it and I was seriously in a lot of pain. "I was getting frustrated, but I'm much better off now - I can do just about everything." The Paralympics, his first trip back to Australia since his accident, haven't brought back any ill feelings, although it has provided motivation. "It's payback time," he said. "It's nothing personal though, I have a very good relationship with the Australian team. I'm not a person who keeps grudges. I'm here to do sport and just live my life, and to live it to the maximum." A Paralympic biographer wrote that Lombaard had worked as a jailer where former South African president Nelson Mandela was imprisoned during the Apartheid era. The 31-year-old athlete says the story is a half-truth. He had started working for the South African Correctional Services department before Mandela was released, although he'd never seen the human rights campaigner in jail. "I have to say though, I've met Mr. Mandela and he is one of the people who inspires me," he said. Regarding Mandela's past: "We don't talk about that." Lombard's target in Sydney was to win five gold medals, adding to the two he picked up in Atlanta. He recovered after snapping his artificial leg during a javelin throw in the pentathlon to win the multi-discipline event, but repairing the damaged prosthetic meant he wasn't prepared for the following long jump event and failed to win a medal. But he said it was a minor setback. With three gold and another chance in the javelin, he's still in line to become the first South African to win four gold medals - all with world records - at any international event.
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