Ellie Simmonds

Eleanor May Simmonds, OBE (born 11 November 1994[1]) is a British former Paralympian swimmer who competed in S6 events. She came to national attention when she competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, winning two gold medals for Great Britain. She was the youngest member of the team, at the age of 13.

Not to be confused with Elizabeth Simmonds.

Ellie Simmonds
OBE
Simmonds in 2008 age 13, celebrating her success in Beijing
Personal information
Full nameEleanor May Simmonds
Nickname(s)Ellie
NationalityBritish
Born (1994-11-11) 11 November 1994
Glossop, Derbyshire, England
Sport
SportPara swimming
DisabilityAchondroplasia
Disability classS6, SM6, SB6
Event(s)freestyle, individual medley, breaststroke
ClubCamden Swiss Cottage Swimming Club, London
Coached bySteve Bayley
Medal record
Women's para swimming
Representing  Great Britain
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Paralympic Games 5 1 2
World Championships 8 3 4
World Championships (25 m) 6 1 0
European Championships 7 2 0
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place2008 Beijing100 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2008 Beijing400 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2012 London 400 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2012 London 200 m individual medley SM6
Gold medal – first place2016 Rio de Janeiro 200 m individual medley SM6
Silver medal – second place2012 London 100m freestyle S6
Bronze medal – third place2012 London 50m freestyle S6
Bronze medal – third place2016 Rio de Janeiro 400 m freestyle S6
World Championships
Gold medal – first place2010 Eindhoven100 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2010 Eindhoven200 m individual medley SM6
Gold medal – first place2010 Eindhoven50 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2010 Eindhoven400 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place 2013 Montreal 100 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place 2013 Montreal 400 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place 2013 Montreal 200 m medley SM6
Gold medal – first place 2015 Glasgow 200 m medley SM6
Silver medal – second place2010 Eindhoven4x100 m freestyle relay 34pts
Silver medal – second place2010 Eindhoven4x100 m medley relay 34pts
Silver medal – second place 2015 Glasgow 400 m freestyle S6
Bronze medal – third place2010 Eindhoven4x50 m medley relay 20pts
Bronze medal – third place 2013 Montreal 50 m freestyle S6
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Glasgow 100 m breaststroke SB6
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Glasgow4x100 m Freestyle Relay 34pts
World Championships (25m)
Gold medal – first place2009 Rio de Janeiro100 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2009 Rio de Janeiro400 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2009 Rio de Janeiro200 m individual medley SM6
Gold medal – first place2009 Rio de Janeiro4x100 m medley S6
Gold medal – first place2009 Rio de Janeiro4x100 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2009 Rio de Janeiro50 m freestyle S6
Silver medal – second place2009 Rio de Janeiro200 m individual medley SM6
European Championships
Gold medal – first place2009 Reykjavik50 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2009 Reykjavik100 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place 2009 Reykjavik 400 m freestyle – S6
Gold medal – first place2009 Reykjavik200 m individual medley SM6
Gold medal – first place2009 Reykjavik4x100 m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2014 Eindhoven400m freestyle S6
Gold medal – first place2014 Eindhoven100m breaststroke S6
Silver medal – second place2014 Eindhoven50m freestyle S6
Silver medal – second place2014 Eindhoven100m freestyle S6
Paralympic World Cup
Gold medal – first place2010 Manchester200 m individual medley SM6

In 2012, she was again selected for the Great Britain squad, this time swimming at a home games in London. She won another two golds in London, including setting a World Record in the 400m freestyle, and a further gold medal at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, this time setting a world record for the 200m medley.

Early and personal life

Born in Derbyshire as an Adoptee, Simmonds grew up in Aldridge, a part of the Metropolitan Walsall Borough. She completed her primary education at Cooper and Jordan CofE Primary[2] before attending Aldridge School and later Olchfa School in Swansea.[3]

Simmonds, who has achondroplasia, became interested in swimming at the age of five.[4] She swam for Boldmere Swimming Club in Sutton Coldfield, under Head Coach Ashley Cox, but she and her mother moved to Swansea when Simmonds was 11 to take advantage of the city's world-class swimming pool.[4][5] Simmonds has three sisters and a brother.[6]

She studied Psychology at Loughborough University in England.[7] She is in a relationship with Matt Dean.[8]

Career

At the age of 13, Simmonds was the youngest British athlete[9] at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, competing in the 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle, 50m butterfly, and 200m Individual Medley.[10] She won gold medals in the 100m and 400m freestyle events.[11]

On 1 September 2012, Simmonds repeated her gold performance to win the 400m freestyle at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, in which she took five seconds off the World Record time.[12] Two days later, on the evening of 3 September, she took Gold in the 200m Individual Medley, breaking the World Record that she had set in the qualifying round that morning.[13]

On 12 September 2016, at the Rio Paralympics, Simmonds defended her gold medal for the 200m individual medley setting a new world record, the first below 3 minutes at 2:59.81[14] Simmonds also won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.[15]

In addition, Simmonds has won ten gold World Championship titles,[1] and swims in the S6 disability category.

On 2 September 2021, Simmonds announced her Paralympic retirement after missing out on a medal in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.[16]

On 7 August 2022, it was announced that Simmonds would be participating in the twentieth series of the BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing with her professional dance partner being Nikita Kuzmin.[17][18] She was eliminated in Week 7 after losing the dance off to Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu.[19]

Honours and awards

Simmonds won the 2008 BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.[20]

Simmonds was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.[21] At 14 years old, she became the youngest person ever to have received this honour.[22] She received the honour from Queen Elizabeth II on 18 February 2009.[23] In March 2012, in the 200 m individual medley, she became the first swimmer to break a world record at London's Aquatics Centre. Her victory in a time of 3:08.14 broke her own previous best time by over half a second.[24]

In 2011, Simmonds won the award for 'Best British Sporting Performance for an Athlete with Disability' at the Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards.[25] At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London Simmonds won four medals, two golds, a silver and a bronze. She took gold in the S6 400m with a new world record; gold in the S6 200m again with a new world record; silver in the S6 100m and a bronze in the S6 50m. In celebration of her two gold medals, two Royal Mail postboxes were painted gold in her honour, one in Aldridge and one in Swansea.

Simmonds was elevated to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to Paralympic sport.[26]

Charity

Simmonds is very involved with charity work, with much of her focus being on sport, young people and water.

She competed on TV show The Great Celebrity Bake-Off in series 2, episode 2.

Sport

Simmonds is a patron of the Dwarf Sports Association UK, along with swimmer Matthew Whorwood. Simmonds says of the charity, "It's a charity that supports people of short stature and helps them get into sport. One of the highlights of the year is the convention we have in the spring. There's everything from power lifting to athletics."[27]

In January 2019, Simmonds was appointed to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee board.[28]

Young people

Simmonds is an ambassador for The Scout Association.

She is also a Girlguiding leader in Manchester, where her pack name is Aqua Owl.[27]

Water

Simmonds is a WaterAid ambassador.[27]

See also

References
  1. "Eleanor Simmonds". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 May 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  2. "Ellie Simmonds makes a splash at her former primary school". Express & Star. 7 December 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  3. "Olympic bronze medalist Joanne Jackson visits Walsall school". Walsall Advertiser. 17 November 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  4. Brown, Oliver (15 September 2012). "Ellie Simmonds, golden girl of the Paralympics, says she will never forget the feeling and doesn't want it to end". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  5. "Paralympian Ellie Simmonds Swansea gold postbox honour". BBC News. 4 September 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  6. Ewing, Sarah (5 September 2014). "Ellie Simmonds: My family values". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  7. "Eleanor Simmonds - Swimming | Paralympic Athlete Profile". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  8. Methven, Nicola; Garrett, Olivia (23 September 2022). "Strictly Come Dancing's Ellie Simmonds plans to 'grab her partner and hope for the best' in new series". Cambridge News. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  9. "GB squad takes shape". Disability Now. Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 9 August 2008.
  10. "GB Swimming Team Biographies". Archived from the original on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2008.
  11. Davies, Gareth A. (15 September 2008). "Eleanor Simmonds claims two swimming gold medals at 2008 Beijing Paralympics". The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  12. Hudson, Elizabeth (1 September 2012). "Paralympics 2012: Ellie Simmonds wins gold in world record". BBC Sport. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  13. "Golden girl Simmonds shines again". London 2012 Paralympics. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  14. "Simmonds wins gold and makes history". BBC. 12 September 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  15. McRae, Donald (11 January 2020). "Ellie Simmonds: 'Going into Rio, swimming for me had been life or death'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  16. "Ellie Simmonds says Paralympic career is over after missing out on medal". BBC Sport. 2 September 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2021.
  17. "Strictly Come Dancing 2022: Paralympian Ellie Simmonds joins line-up". BBC News. 7 August 2022. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  18. Sansome, Jessica (23 October 2022). "Strictly's Nikita addresses fan worry as he disappears after illegal lift drama". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  19. "Ellie and Nikita depart the dance floor in Week Seven". BBC. 6 November 2022.
  20. "Paralympian Eleanor Simmonds named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year 2008". British Paralympic Association. 15 December 2008. Archived from the original on 9 June 2011. Retrieved 30 December 2008.
  21. "No. 58929". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2008. p. 22.
  22. "Sport stars lead New Year Honours". BBC News. 31 December 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
  23. "Swimmer Ellie receives MBE at 14". BBC News. 18 February 2009. Retrieved 18 February 2009.
  24. Hope, Nick (8 March 2012). "Ellie Simmonds sets first Aquatics Centre world record". BBC Sport. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  25. Jaguar Academy of Sport. "Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards". Archived from the original on 28 May 2013.
  26. "No. 60367". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 2012. p. 24.
  27. Love, Martin (14 January 2017). "Ellie Simmonds: 'I've never been bullied. I'm just small'". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  28. "Four new appointments complete Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Board | Birmingham 2022". Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
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