The visually impaired swimmer says accepting her condition changed everything as she prepares to compete for Team South Africa at the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Pretoria, South Africa (23 July 2026) – While most athletes dream of standing on a Commonwealth Games starting block, Danika Vyncke is living that dream. A dream she never imagined would begin in a swimming pool simply meant to help her make friends.
The University of Pretoria swimmer will represent Team South Africa at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, competing in the S13 50m and 100m freestyle events. For Vyncke, who lives with Stargardt disease, a rare inherited eye condition that causes progressive central vision loss, the journey has been about much more than medals.
Alongside her younger sister, who has the same condition, Vyncke was homeschooled after the pair experienced bullying at school. Looking for a way for them to feel part of a community, their mother introduced them to swimming.
Although her father narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Commonwealth Games during his own swimming career, Danika says competitive sport wasn’t initially part of her plan.
“I did not start out swimming with the idea of being competitive I only realised at the age of 14 that I have the talent to swim competitively.”
Accepting that she would compete as a para-swimmer wasn’t always easy.
“The biggest obstacle at first was that I refused to accept my disability. I wanted to compete against the able-bodied swimmers.”
Today, however, her perspective has completely changed.
“Someone once said to me: ‘It is not that you have a disability, you just have other abilities.’ I fully agree with it. I have had many more positive experiences from lessons learned than negative ones. I know now that adversity makes you stronger.”
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“My goal is to qualify for the finals, because after that anything is possible. It is important not to put too much pressure on yourself beforehand.”
As she prepares to dive into another major international competition, she’s continuing to prove that self-belief can carry you much further than any obstacle ever could.
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