Eleanor ‘Ellie’ Simmonds is a remarkable disability swimmer who shot to fame when she became the youngest Briton to win an Olympic or Paralympic medal at the age of 13 years and 9 months. This was the start of a string of firsts for Eleanor as she went on to become the youngest winner of the BBC Young Sports Personality of the year in 2008 and then the youngest recipient of the MBE at the age of 14 years, receiving her award from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.

Since her meteoric rise into the public eye Ellie has impressed by continuing her dominance in her sport, winning 10 World titles, 5 European titles and setting 8 World Records in the 3 years since the 2008 Paralympic Games. She is now the most recognised Paralympic athlete in Great Britain and arguably the face of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Eleanor’s disability is classified as Achondroplasia dwarfism. She started swimming at the age of 5 and started competing against able bodied children at the age of 8. At 10 years old Ellie’s talent was spotted at a disability event and she was entered onto the British Swimming talent program and worked her way through to be selected as the youngest member of a senior British swimming squad for the 2006 IPC World Championships at 12 years and 3 weeks. Eleanor has completed her GCSEs and will be entering sixth-form in September studying world development, history and citizenship.

In the London 2012 Paralympics Ellie won an amazing 4 medals, in the 50m Freestyle S6 event she won bronze, in the 100m S6 event she won silver and in the 200m individual medley she won gold and set a new world record time of 3:05:30 and in the 400m S6 event she won gold and set another world record time of 5:19:17.