Peggy de Villiers (born 22 September 1993) is a South African deaf swimmer. She represented South Africa at the Deaflympics in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

. 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. She currently holds the deaf world swimming records in the women's 50m butterfly and women's 100m butterfly categories. She completed her undergraduated swimming career with the

University of West Florida The University of West Florida (West Florida or UWF) is a public university in Pensacola, Florida. Established in 1963 as part of the State University System of Florida, the university sits on the third largest campus in the State University Sy ...

as a member of the college team.

Biography

Peggy was born to Almero de Villiers and Marika de Villiers on 22, September 1993 and grew up in

Somerset West Somerset West ( af, Somerset-Wes) is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa. Organisationally and administratively it is included in the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality as a suburb of the Helderberg region (formerly called Hottent ...

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

. She contracted

bacterial meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or ...

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.

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, silver medals in women's 100m backstroke, women's 100m freestyle and a bronze medal in women's 50m butterfly. 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.

References

External links

Profile at Deaflympics

Profile at ICSDProfile at collegeswimming
1993 births Living people South African female swimmers Deaf swimmers Sportspeople from Somerset West South African deaf people 21st-century South African women 21st-century South African people {{SouthAfrica-swimming-bio-stub