Amanda Toni "Mandy" Loots (born 3 August 1978 in

Gwelo Gweru is a city in central Zimbabwe. Near the geographical centre of the country. It is on the centre of Midlands Province. Originally an area known to the Ndebele as "The Steep Place" because of the Gweru River's high banks, in 1894 it became ...

, Rhodesia) is an Olympic and national-record-holding swimmer from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Swimming career

Loots swam for South Africa at the 1996,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and 2008 Olympics. Despite being of South African nationality she won the ASA National British Championships over 100 metres butterfly and the 400 metres medley in 1999. At the

1999 All-Africa Games The 7th All-Africa Games were held from September 10, 1999, to September 19, 1999, in Greater Johannesburg, South Africa. 53 countries participated in eighteen sports. Netball was included as a demonstration sport. The South Africans hosted abo ...

, she was South Africa's most decorated athlete at the Games, winning 6 gold medals.(1999) All Africa Games – Day 6
by Neville Smith from ''SwimNews''. Published 1999-09-18, retrieved 2011-07-30. In November 2009, she set the African Record and South African Record in the short-course (25m) 200 fly. She has swum for South Africa at the: *Olympics: 1996,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

*Commonwealth Games:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

, 2002, 2006 *All-Africa Games:

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, 2007 *African Swimming Championships:

, 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loots, Mandy 1978 births Living people Sportspeople from Gweru Afrikaner people Zimbabwean emigrants to South Africa South African people of Dutch descent Olympic swimmers of South Africa Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1994 Commonwealth Games Swimmers at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Swimmers at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming Commonwealth Games silver medallists for South Africa African Games gold medalists for South Africa African Games medalists in swimming African Games silver medalists for South Africa Competitors at the 2011 All-Africa Games Medallists at the 2002 Commonwealth Games