Postbox painted gold to honour Swansea Paralympian Ellie Simmonds
A postbox will be painted gold in Swansea's marina to honour Paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds today.
The Olchfa Comprehensive School pupil claimed her second gold of London 2012 when she won the SM6 200 metres individual medley last night.
Ellie, 17, won her first gold medal in the 400m freestyle on Saturday when she produced a world-class swim and smashed her personal best by more than five seconds to clock 5:19.17.
A postbox was painted gold in honour of Ellie in Aldridge, Walsall, where most of the family lives, and painting of the postbox on Trawler Road will get underway at 10am this morning.
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A commemorative Ellie Simmonds stamp has also been issued.
Ellie and her mother Val, who lives with her in Swansea and travels back to Aldridge at weekends, moved from their home in Walsall because it did not have any 50m swimming pools to join coach Billy Pye's elite team at the Wales National Pool in Swansea.
“We did the first one in Aldridge, where she grew up, yesterday, and she chose the one here because she trains in Swansea at the Wales National Pool,” Royal Mail spokeswoman Val Bodden said today.
"It means she will drive by it twice a day because there is only one way in and out of the marina.
"We've got our own map of where all Royal Mail postboxes are situated, we then looked it up on Google Maps and showed her an image of the box.
She added: “The boxes themselves are repainted every three years and this one will be looked after and maintained like all the rest.”
Ellie is in the pool again later today with a third chance of striking gold.
Comments
by BobDavies2
Tuesday, September 04 2012, 10:26PM
“Outstanding performance by this young girl she is pushing the boundaries without any shadow of doubt, this shows her the dedication and commitment to sport and determination to win.
Just to remind some of the contributors on this site, its all to do with winning medals, not how many post boxes get painted.”
by Hadoken6773
Tuesday, September 04 2012, 3:47PM
“odin, its natural her hometown would get the first offering just as you would save your own child over a stranger if you had to choose.
The bottom line is, she has been here long enough to feel a sense of identity with the place and we her and she has spent many years here. She has spent a big part of the most important part of her life here and considers the place a second home. She will have benefited from the facilities here or she would not be here, so we earned a stake in her success and thank her gladly.”
by odinhouse
Tuesday, September 04 2012, 1:22PM
“Rhian - - the point i am trying to make is if She ( Elle ) had only won one gold medal then the Gold Post box would has been/ has been Painted in Walsall . that's all .like you said i and we are glad 2 golds so far. hope for another Today ( Tues ).”
by Rhian
Tuesday, September 04 2012, 1:16PM
“It's not the second choice, the athlete gets a gold post box in their hometown, Ellie is from Walsall therefore making that here hometown. We should just count ourselves lucky that she was awesome enough to win a second gold medal giving her adopted hometown a chance to share in the celebrations!”
by odinhouse
Tuesday, September 04 2012, 11:48AM
“'''' Very Good '' , But its their second choice as they have all ready Painted one in Walsall England , more likely they are doing one for Swansea because there may be a Big fuss if they did not put one in the Swansea Area , but like i said 1st BOX was done in Walsall .”