At A Glance: Kim Bonney
- Age: 22
- Home: Cape Town, South Africa
- Family: Mother, Su; father, Gary; younger brother, Duncan
- Major: Accounting
- Specialties: 100 and 200 breaststroke
- Career: Set six records at Fairmont High in Cape Town; won eight age-group gold medals her final three years at home before coming to Las Vegas; her 2:17.31 in the 200 breaststroke won the Mountain West Conference title in 2005; in Texas in December, she eclipsed that mark with a 2:16.59, the third-fastest time in UNLV history.
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- Kim Bonney on Cape Flats.
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- Kim Bonney on apartheid in South Africa.
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- Kim Bonney on burning her arm with a hot water bottle.
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Sun Archives
Beyond the Sun
Kim Bonney turns as red as her left arm was when she talks about the mishap that shelved her from the UNLV swim team for two weeks over the holidays.
A senior from South Africa, she’s accustomed to sleeping with no heat back home. Hot-water bottles are used for bed warmth.
Enter Kermit the Frog. When she rolled over the fuzzy green creature, the seam of the water bottle inside split, leaving her with second-degree burns on her arm.
“She was sore and crying, and we felt so helpless,” Bonney’s mother, Su, writes in an e-mail from Cape Town. “The UNLV medical staff was incredible.”
Kim Bonney got to make a rare trip home, where Su thinks the Southern Hemisphere summer helped heal her daughter’s wound.
At your peril, mention Kermit the Frog to Kim.
“It hurt like hell,” she says. “But that was just dumb, a stupid injury. I would have rather been out doing something awesome, like trying a double flip on a skateboard.”
1. Great genes
Su Bonney set the South African 200 freestyle record in 1978 and was captain of the national team. Gary Bonney, Kim’s father, was a prominent player on the national water polo team. His brother, Richard, swam at Southern Methodist University. Apartheid, however, kept South Africa out of the Olympics until 1992. “A small sacrifice compared to many of our other less fortunate fellow South Africans,” Su Bonney writes.
2. Life goal
Gary Bonney ditched a successful IBM career to devote his life to helping HIV and AIDS patients in South Africa. In 2003, he earned a postgraduate degree in HIV/AIDS management, finishing first in a class of more than 300. It would take pages to list his achievements and efforts. “There is a lot of pain and despair in the world, and it’s nice to see good, kind people spreading hope and happiness,” Kim says. “I’m just proud that my dad is one of them.”
3. Googly, anyone?
Kim Bonney is such an avid cricket fan she volunteered hours of personal time to help run the Cricket World Cup in South Africa in 2003. Actually, she just wanted to meet South African stars Mark Boucher and Jonty Rhodes. No exclusives, though; she was among thousands of fans who yelled for a photograph. She got one.
4. Persuasive
Wyoming and San Diego State, near where Uncle Richard lives, showed interest in Bonney. Then she googled Wyoming and gasped at the isolation. Former Rebels backstroker and South Africa native Jon Hugo, a friend of the family’s, pressed Kim to go to UNLV. Friends went to Notre Dame and Pacific. “I go home and other friends say I’ve improved the most and I come back the happiest,” she says. “No regrets whatsoever.”
5. Swan song
Bonney hopes the Rebels’ relay teams qualify for the NCAA championships at the four-day Mountain West Conference meet that begins Feb. 27 in Oklahoma City. She will quit competitive swimming after this season, backpack through Europe for a month with three or four teammates when school ends, then take a CPA exam. Then? “Don’t know,” she says, laughing. “Can’t you ask easier questions?”
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