*** Welcome to piglix ***

Eleanor Simmonds

Ellie Simmonds
Ellie Simmonds 2008 Olympic Parade.jpg
Simmonds in 2008, celebrating her success in Beijing
Personal information
Full name Eleanor May Simmonds
Nickname(s) Ellie
Nationality British
Born (1994-11-11) 11 November 1994 (age 22)
Walsall, England
Height 1.23 m (4 ft 0 in)
Weight 45 kg (99 lb)
Sport
Sport Swimming
Strokes Freestyle
Club Boldmere Swimming Club; Swansea Performance Centre; Loughborough University
Coach Steve Bayley

Eleanor May "Ellie" Simmonds, OBE (born 11 November 1994) is a British Paralympian swimmer competing 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, despite being the youngest member of the team, at the age of 13. 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.

Born in Walsall, Simmonds grew up in neighbouring Aldridge. She completed her primary education at Cooper and Jordan School before attending Aldridge School and later Olchfa School in Swansea. Simmonds, who has achondroplasia, became interested in swimming at the age of five. 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. Simmonds has 3 sisters and a brother.

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

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. 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.


...
Wikipedia

...