Paralympics 2012 Day 3: Ellie Simmonds adds lustre to legend
with perfect race to win S6 400m gold
It was the Paralympic answer to a Mo Farah moment. Ellie
Simmonds, with a lung-bursting yet perfectly calculated swim,
set off a cacophonous clamour at the Aquatics Centre as she
shattered the world record to seize her first gold of the Games.
What are your career highlights?
The youngest athlete to compete at the 2008 Paralympics aged 13,
Eleanor stunned spectators when she won double gold in the 100m
S6 and 400m S6 freestyle events. Other wins have included ten
gold World Championship .titles. Her form heading into London
2012 is mixed with two golds, a silver and a fourth at the recent
British Championships.
Interesting Facts
Eleanor Simmonds
Country: Great Britain
Date of birth: 11/11/1994
Place of birth: Walsall, England
Gender: Female
What is your disability?
I was born with achondroplasia, a bone growth disorder
that causes dwarfism.
I've got high expectations of
myself. I'm quite a competitive
person and I hate losing.
What are your events?
100m freestyle SWIMMING
400m freestyle
200m individual medley
50m freestyle
How do your times for different events compare?
Here is a chart of results for Ellie compared to an able bodied
female olympic swimmer :
Event
100m freestyle
400m freestyle
200m individual medley
50m freestyle
100m freestyle
400m freestyle
200m individual medley
50m freestyle
Times
1min 16.68
5 min 19.17 sec.
3 min 05.39
0 min 36.11
0 min 53.00
4min 28.43
2min 07.57
0min 24.05
How did your career in swimming start?
Eleanor began swimming at age four and entered her first
competition just four years later. After watching the 2004
Paralympic Games on television, Eleanor was inspired to
take her sport to an elite level and stepped up her training
with the aim of qualifying for Beijing 2008. Eleanor
Simmonds won two gold medals in the 100m and 400m S6
freestyle aged 13 at the 2008 Beijing Games.
In 2009 she became the youngest person to ever be
awarded an MBE.
At age 16, Eleanor is already one of the most successful
Paralympic swimmers in international competition, with
little evidence of disappointment thus far in her career.
How does the training differ
for a paralympian swimmer?
The first international games for disabled people were held in
1948.
Like able-body swimming, a good level of overall conditioning is
required as athletes use various muscles during competition.
Similarly, races are often won and lost on the turn - known as the
fifth stroke.
A good start - whether it be on a platform or in water - requires
quick reactions. Failure to react to the start of the race can leave
swimmers struggling to make up the time.
Blind swimmers must react to tappers who tap the sides of the
pool to make athletes aware that a turn is approaching.
As Simmonds turned around to see her record time on the giant
monitor, she cried. The emotion of hearing 17,500 spectators chant
her name proved overwhelming for this amiable teenager, who had
just grasped her third Paralympic gold medal before she had even
taken her A-levels.
A British audience starved of victory in the Olympic pool had
found a heroine who stood a mere 4ft tall in her bare feet.
“I’m on the edge of the world right now,” she said, breathlessly.
Just four hours before the race was due to start at 5.30pm, the
involvement of the 17 year-old’s main rival, America’s Victoria
Arlen, had been under scrutiny as the International Paralympic
Committee debated whether to reclassify her.
Some members felt that her disability, caused by a virus that left
her in a vegetative state for two years and paralysed below the
waist, was not serious enough to include her in the S6 category.
Final clearance arrived only at 2pm.
While arguments away from the water could have distracted
Simmonds, she kept her focus impeccably. Asked whether she
had been unnerved at any stage, she replied:
“Not really. I think it pushed me even harder.”