Former SA Paralympian Achmat ‘Sharkboy’ Hassiem in a coma after surgery

Former South African Paralympic medal-winning swimmer Achmat Hassiem is in a coma in a Western Cape hospital after undergoing surgery.

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His former high school, Bergvliet High School, confirmed the news in a Facebook post.

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“As a school, we are proud of our Paralympic and Eco Warrior hero, winner of a bronze medal at the Rio (sic) Olympics, and we therefore call on the entire Bergvliet High community to lift him and his family up in your prayers. He needs our prayers to overcome perhaps his biggest challenge. We believe that the power of prayer will lift him out of the coma so that he can begin his road to recovery,” school principal Stephen Price wrote on the Bergvliet High School Past Pupils page.

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Achmat Hassiem was nicknamed “Sharkboy” after tragically losing his lower right leg in a great white shark attack at Muizenberg in 2006 while trying to save his younger brother Tariq.

After his lower right leg was amputated, he started swimming competitively and qualified for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.

He also competed at the 2012 London Paralympics where he won a bronze medal in the 100m butterfly during which he set a new African record of 57.76 seconds in the final.

Hassiem, now 39, retired from competitive swimming after competing at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics in 2016.