Eleanor May Simmonds, OBE (born 11 November 1994) is a British former

Paralympian The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaired ...

swimmer who competed in S6 events. She came to national attention when she competed in the

2008 Summer Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was f ...

in Beijing, winning two gold medals for Great Britain. She was 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.

Personal life

Born in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

, Simmonds grew up in Aldridge, a part of the Metropolitan Walsall Borough. She completed her primary education at Cooper and Jordan CofE Primary before attending Aldridge School and later

Olchfa School Olchfa School ( cy, Ysgol Gyfun yr Olchfa) is the largest secondary school in Swansea, South Wales, with approximately 1,700 pupils, including 357 in the Sixth Form. Situated in Sketty Park to the west of Sketty, it provides secondary educa ...

in Swansea. Simmonds, who has achondroplasia, became interested in swimming at the age of five. She swam for Boldmere Swimming Club in

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, known locally as Sutton ( ), is a town and civil parish in the City of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles sou ...

, under Head Coach Ashley Cox, but she and her mother moved to

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the C ...

when Simmonds was 11 to take advantage of the city's world-class swimming pool. Simmonds has three sisters and a brother. She studied

Psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when ...

in England. She is in a relationship with Matt Dean.

Career

At the age of 13, Simmonds was the youngest British athlete at the

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

, competing in the 50m, 100m and 400m

freestyle Freestyle may refer to: Brands * Reebok Freestyle, a women's athletic shoe * Ford Freestyle, an SUV automobile * Coca-Cola Freestyle, a vending machine * ICD Freestyle, a paintball marker * Abbott FreeStyle, a blood glucose monitor by Abbott Lab ...

, 50m

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group compris ...

, 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 The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Ga ...

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. 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 Simmonds also won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. In addition, Simmonds has won ten gold

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

titles, 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 The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the International Paralympi ...

. On 7 August 2022, it was announced that Simmonds would be participating in the twentieth series of the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

show ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 j ...

'' with her professional dance partner being

Nikita Kuzmin Nikita Kuzmin (Ukrainian: Нікіта Кузьмін; born 23 December 1997) is a Ukrainian dancer and choreographer. He is best known for being a professional dancer on the RTL and BBC One dance competitions '' Let's Dance'' and '' Strictly C ...

. She was eliminated in Week 7 after losing the dance off to Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu.

Honours and awards

Simmonds won the 2008 BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award. Simmonds was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2009 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2009 were announced on 31 December 2008 in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Christopher and Nevis,Saint Christopher. to ...

. At 14 years old, she became the youngest person ever to have received this honour. She received the honour from

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

on 18 February 2009. 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. In 2011, Simmonds won the award for 'Best British Sporting Performance for an Athlete with Disability' at the Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards. At the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

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

. Simmonds was elevated to

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(OBE) in the

2013 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2013 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebra ...

for services to Paralympic sport.

Charity

Simmonds is very involved with charity work, with much of her focus being on sports, young people and water. She competed on Great Celebrity Bake Off Season 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." In January 2019, Simmonds was appointed to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee board.

Young people

Simmonds is an ambassador for

The Scout Association The Scout Association is the largest Scouting organisation in the United Kingdom and is the World Organization of the Scout Movement's recognised member for the United Kingdom. Following the origin of Scouting in 1907, the association was fo ...

. She is also a

Girlguiding Girlguiding is the operating name of The Guide Association, previously named The Girl Guides Association and is the national guiding organisation of the United Kingdom. It is the UK's largest girl-only youth organisation. Girlguiding is a cha ...

leader in Manchester, where her pack name is Aqua Owl.

Water

Simmonds is a WaterAid ambassador.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simmonds, Ellie Living people 1994 births Alumni of Loughborough University British female medley swimmers Television presenters with disabilities English female freestyle swimmers English female swimmers English people with disabilities Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the World Para Swimming Championships Medalists at the World Para Swimming European Championships Officers of the Order of the British Empire Paralympic bronze medalists for Great Britain Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Paralympic medalists in swimming Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic swimmers of Great Britain People educated at Olchfa School People from Aldridge S6-classified Paralympic swimmers Sportspeople from Walsall Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Swimmers at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Swimmers with dwarfism World record holders in paralympic swimming