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02 August 2021
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Story Dr Nitha Ramnath
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Photo Supplied
In this special Women’s Month edition of the Voices from the Free State podcast series, we elevate and celebrate our female voices.
Likeleli Monyamane takes us through her journey as a student at the UFS. Founder of Inspire Innovation Business Consultants, Likeleli is a chartered accountant
based in Lesotho, with a deep passion for skills development and mentorship.
A passion for evidence-based medicine and the notion of value in healthcare is what drives
Dr Anchen Laubscher. Anchen is driven to ensure that healthcare is scientifically
proven, of high quality, cost-effective, and tailored to a patient’s needs.
Karla’s story is one of determination, and her success is the result of two decades of hard work. Although netball is not a professional sport in South Africa and athletes don’t get paid for it – quitting was never an option for
Karla Pretorius.
Enjoy these inspiring stories
here as we celebrate our female voices from the Voices from the Free State podcast series.
For further information regarding the podcast series, or to propose other alumni guests, please email us at
alumnipodcast@ufs.ac.za
For all Voices from the Free State podcasts,
click here.
Sarah, our own champion
2008-11-05
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| Sarah Shannon at the Paralympic Games in Beijing |
Sarah Shannon, a second-year student in the Postgraduate Certificate in Education, has been involved in disability sport on national level for the past 12 years. Sarah has cerebral palsy.
In 1996 she participated at the South African National Championships for the physically disabled for the first time, entering for several sporting codes and winning five gold medals. In swimming she participates in the S3 class together with other swimmers that have comparable abilities to hers.
In 1997 she decided to focus on swimming competitively. She participated in her first national championships for swimming that year. After that (1998) she represented South Africa on international level at the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Swimming World Championships in New Zealand where she ended 4th in the 50m backstroke and 7th in both the 50m and 100m freestyle in her class.
In 1999 she represented South Africa in Johannesburg at the 7th All Africa Games and won a silver medal for the 50m freestyle and a bronze medal for the 100m freestyle.
In 2000 she was part of the South African team at the Sydney Paralympic Games where she reached the finals and finished 7th in the 50m backstroke and 8th in the 50m freestyle. Northern-KwaZulu-Natal also awarded her the Junior Sportswoman of the Year award in 2001. In 2002 she participated at the South African Senior National swimming championships for KwaZulu-Natal in the multi-disability category.
In 2005 she completed the Midmar Mile. She also represented South Africa at the world championships for athletes with cerebral palsy in Boston in the United States of America. She won two gold medals for respectively the 50m freestyle and the 50m backstroke and two silver medals in the 100m and 200m freestyle. She was also nominated to represent South Africa as athlete’s representative on the world committee of CPISRA (Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association). In this year Sarah also received the KwaZulu-Natal Premier’s Sportswoman with a disability award of the year.
In 2006 she qualified for the IPC world championships but could not attend.
In 2007 she represented South Africa once more at the Visa Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in the United Kingdom where she broke the South African record in the 50m backstroke, finishing 7th in the 50m freestyle and 6th in the 50m backstroke.
She was also part of the very successful Team South Africa to the Paralympic Games in Beijing. She reached the finals in both the 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle. She finished 7th in the 50m freestyle and 6th in the 50m backstroke in personal best times for both events. She has been participating in the able bodied South African National Swimming Championships since 2002. She is currently ranked 2nd in the world for short course items and 11th for the long course items. She is truly our best swimmer in the S3 class.