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Achmat imagines shark in pool
RIO DE JANEIRO: When South African Achmat Hassiem competes in the Paralympic swimming pool he motivates himself by imagining a shark just behind -- the shark that
RIO DE JANEIRO: When South African Achmat Hassiem competes in the Paralympic swimming pool he motivates himself by imagining a shark just behind -- the shark that bit off half his leg a decade ago.
The fates of Hassiem and sharks have been inextricably wrapped up since that day off Cape Town when a great white caught him during a lifeguard training drill.
Then the shark almost killed him. Today the injury has propelled him into the Rio Paralympics.
And next week, having completed his third and final Games, he will start a new career: globe-trotting advocate for saving sharks from overfishing.
“My nickname is ‘shark boy.’ Everyone calls me ‘sharky’ or ‘shark boy,’” he told AFP after competing in the 100m freestyle.
“My brother explains to me that it sounds like a superhero title and I like to think about it like that -being a superhero.”
When Hassiem removes his prosthesis, which is emblazoned with the South African colors, and gets into the pale-blue pool, he thinks back to the moment when he took what was almost the last swim of his life.
“I actually use that fear when I race,” he said. “I imagine a 4.7 meter (15.4 foot) great white shark guiding me down the lane and pushing me to try and get out on top.”
It was August 13, 2006, and then 24-year-old Hassiem and his younger brother Tariq were playing the role of victims in a lifeguard exercise off Muizenberg beach.
While waiting to be picked up by a rescue boat, Hassiem noticed a grey triangle approach his brother.
“I thought it was a dolphin, either a dolphin or one of those seals,” he said. “I decided to look under the water.”
When he resurfaced, he “screamed.” His brother was in the path of a huge shark.
Fearing the boat would not arrive in time, Hassiem began to beat on the water to draw the threat away from Tariq. The plan worked: it saved his brother.
