Christian Sadie (21) is seated on one of the benches on the Rooiplein and sits with his hands mostly in his pockets to keep them warm. He has recently returned from the World Para Swimming Series in Glasgow, Scotland.
Sadie has radial club hands, meaning that his radius bone is either missing or underdeveloped and it causes his hands to be bent towards his body. In his case it is missing, and this means he has shorter forearms, although you only realise this once he removes his hands from his pockets.
“I always did disability sport from a young age,” tells Sadie. He explains that he was not serious about it though and barely practised for it. He describes that at their galas “there’s a different mentality, everyone would get a medal”.
Sadie says: “I didn’t enjoy that because I’m very competitive.” He adds: “I didn’t see myself as disabled […] A lot of people think you need help and you don’t really need help. And that sort of put me off disabled sport.”
He elaborates that he didn’t like “the mentality of disabled people” there and he believes that “you get taught to be disabled in a way”. He is frustrated by people who give up too easily.
This mindset might be because his parents treated him and his twin sister, who is able-bodied, very similarly. The only difference Sadie notes is that he went to a biokineticist until the age of 8 or 9 to improve his grip and the strength on the one side of his body.
“I recently started abusing those systems [for disabled people] though which I’ve never done before,” admits Sadie. He gives an example: “I go stand in the assisted line so that I can get on the plane first.” He has mixed feelings about using these systems and giggles nervously when explaining: “I feel guilty. Sometimes I don’t. Most of the time I do feel guilty.”
During high school he used to play soccer with his friends. “I’m a people pleaser in a way, and then one day I woke up and decided: ‘I want to do something for myself,’” says Sadie of his decision to start swimming.
He initially did it for fitness but later spoke to Pierre de Roubaix from Stellenbosch University about whether or not he could do it competitively. At De Roubaix’s encouragement he started swimming competitively halfway through his matric year in 2015.
Nationally he competes at the SASAPD’s (South Africa Sport Association for the Physically Disabled) competition with other swimmers. He explains that this event is big for other sports, but in swimming it is seen as more of a training gala. In South Africa the able-bodied and disabled swimmers compete at the same event.
Christian Sadie (21) sits on the Rooiplein and chats about his life as a student and para-swimmer. PHOTO: Lia Snijman.
When jokingly asked if he hangs out with Chad le Clos, he calmly says: “Yeah, I wouldn’t say we’re good friends, but I greet him, he greets me.” He earnestly tells: “The people like Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh, who are massively famous people, are actually more down to earth.”
Sadie does get star struck from time to time and excitedly tells of his encounter with a very famous South African athlete: “I met Caster Semenya. And I didn’t click it was Caster Semenya. But then I did, and we were halfway up the elevator […] We were talking, and I just suddenly clicked: ‘Oh shit, this is Caster Semenya.’ It was very cool, and she is also very cool.”
With regards to the recent IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) ruling against Semenya, Sadie says that there was a petition circulating among the swimmers in her support, but he is uncertain how far the petition will go.
He competed internationally for the first time two years ago in Mexico. When asked whether this was the event that I saw and the one where he won a silver medal, he affirms it. He then laughs and looks slightly uncomfortable to correct that he had in fact won three medals at this tournament.
Sadie has more or less 10 training sessions a week for his swimming, six of which are swimming sessions, two to three of which are gym sessions and one which is a physio session. He explains that they prepare in phases.
First up is the World Champs which takes place in early September and lasts for about a week. If he reaches the top two there, a spot is booked for him at the Paralympics. This would help South Africa get more spots. Next year, he has to qualify for Nationals and then he can go to Tokyo in 2020 for the Paralympics as his final phase.
Sadie explains that there are different categories according to which people compete. The first ten categories deal with physical disabilities, 1 being those whose capabilities to compete are the most affected, and 10 being those that are the least affected. He has gone through three classifications and has been put in category 7. Not everybody in his category has the same disability as him, but they have the same level of capabilities.
These classifications are done by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) who look at how he swims, how his technique is and other factors to determine how much his disability holds him back. There are also categories for those that have extremely poor or no eyesight, as well as those that are intellectually impaired.
Sadie is currently doing his degree in BA Human Resources at the Stellenbosch University, although he might switch over to the BCom version of the degree. He prefers to type out his class notes for the sake of speed. When asked about his plans for the future, he quips: “To find work and continue swimming.”
He recently received a bursary which helps support him, but cannot sustain him without a job. He explains that post-retirement plans look different for swimmers depending on what country they’re from. His friends from first world countries like Germany and Norway already have jobs where they do “disability recruitment for swimming” for their Paralympic committee.
Sadie wishes to go into sports psychology because “everyone knows how to work hard but they don’t know how to work smart”. He wants them to know what kind of exercise is right for their body type, and how to recover so that they are not “going into a deficit of energy”.
He states that he would not mind working with depressive people because he dealt with depression himself in primary school. “Sports to me was a way out of depression. Not for everyone because it’s more severe for some.” He is quick to note: “What […] worked for other people won’t necessarily work for me or vice versa.”
Sadie admits that sometimes he is annoyed by small things like having to carry multiple shopping bags or getting a grip on some of the weights at the gym. However, for the most part his life is pretty normal: he happily sits and waits for his girlfriend to finish her Computer Science test during our interview, he loves playing League of Legends online with his friends, and to watch Arsenal’s games.
He just happens to also sometimes win medals for South Africa and have casual interactions with Caster Semenya.