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Search forBig gamble pays off for dedicated teen Eleanor Simmonds
Saturday, September 27, 2008, 07:55
The world watched as she blew away the competition in the 100-metre freestyle — which is not even her strongest event — making the history books at the same time as the youngest British gold medalist. And when she repeated the trick in the 400-metre freestyle — throwing in a new world record for good measure — a nation swooned as she broke down in tears of joy.
"I can't believe I'm a champion," she said, clutching her medals ready for a photo shoot with Swimming Times magazine.
"The races seem like ages ago now — it's all a blur. I was really nervous before the first event so I tried to chill out by listening to music and taking my mind off it. In the water, I just remember getting my head down, getting that last bit of energy and going for it. I was so shocked to win — it took a while to sink in."
A pupil at Olchfa Comprehensive School, Ellie returned to lessons this week to be greeted by the whole school lining the street and chanting her name. Presented with her third medal — in the form of a giant cake — she was visibly delighted to be back in the company of her school friends. "It's really good to be back," she said.
"Beijing was an amazing experience and an amazing challenge. I'm really proud to represent my country at such a high level. But I did miss my friends and family — and proper British cooking. All my friends are really proud — I've been showing them my medals, which they say are really heavy. I just want to go back to normal now — seeing my friends and going to school."
Originally from Walsall, Ellie's family moved to Swansea last year to be near to world-class training facilities at the Wales National Pool — home to one of British Swimming's three high performance centres in the UK.
Mum Valerie beams with pride as she talks of her daughter's astounding successes.
"I'm still shell-shocked by it all, to be honest," she said. "My feet haven't touched the ground — the past few weeks have been manic. Everyone hoped if Ellie got it right on the day she might be in the running for a medal but her gold in the 400-metre freestyle was a total and utter shock for me. It's difficult to put into words how proud I am of her. For some reason, you don't expect such things of your own children, maybe someone else's, but not yours.
"It was a big step for us to move to Swansea from the Midlands, but it has paid dividends. I do miss my family but we go back most weekends and keep in touch with them all. It's all worked out better than I expected."
That said, Valerie was not too impressed with her first impressions of one of Swansea's neighbouring towns.
"When I first drove down here and saw Port Talbot I wasn't very impressed," she said.
"Especially considering I'd just come from the Black Country — the industrial capital of the UK. But Swansea is a lot nicer than I ever imagined. Gower is beautiful and we've settled in really well."
Ellie's come a long way since her first swimming lesson at the age of four. Competitive from the start, she was keen to move up to the higher groups and competed in her first gala aged eight. Soon, weekly swimming lessons turned into two a week. But the biggest inspiration came when she watched the Athens Paralympics on TV. She turned to her mum and said "that's what I want to do."
Always an active teenager, she gradually dropped her other activities in favour of swimming. Horse riding, ballet and dancing all went out the window as she sharpened her focus on the water. "Ellie's swimming was going well in the Midlands," says Valerie.
"But we got to the point where her training needed to be more focused than they could deliver. I think Swansea and the National Pool have been pivotal to her success. The main reason we moved here in the first place was because of the disability swimming coach Billy Pye. Ellie came to Swansea during her school holidays to begin with and she just gelled with Billy straight away. He's an extremely dedicated and motivated coach. He has a knack of getting on with everyone and getting the best out of people."
Born with an achondroplasia, or dwarfism, Ellie stands at 3ft 9ins — but what she lacks in height she makes up for in confidence.
"I don't even think about it," Ellie says.
"It's normal for me and I've never had any problems at school or anything because of my height."
Her mother says Ellie does not see herself as being any different to anyone else.
"We have always said that in her head, Ellie is 6ft tall," she says.
"She's got such a strong, positive attitude and everyone accepts her like they would anyone else — it's been that way since she started nursery school. She's also very mature for her age. When we got back from China there was a mound of requests from the media, but she's handled all the attention really well. It was fantastic of the school to welcome her back in such a lovely way. And they all had a half-day off, so she was really popular!"
Clearly not one to rest on her laurels, Ellie was straight back into her training programme this week alongside the rest of Billy Pye's team of eight leading disabled swimmers. Her routine consists of 16 hours of training between Monday and Saturday — with sessions both before and after school, clocking up to four kilometres per session. Sunday is her well-deserved day of rest.
Neath-base coach Billy — a former miner — says the youngster's commitment is second to none.
"Her time management and attention to detail are something else," he says.
"As an athlete, she's still learning her trade and her talent is quite raw. But when she first came here I recognised that talent straight away and thought 'hold on, we've got something special here that doesn't come around that often'.
"We weren't sure how it would work to begin with — moving Ellie away from the place she'd grown up and away from her friends was a big decision for her parents to make. Plus she's only 13 and our centre is full of senior swimmers. But she fitted in so well — and has ended up showing the seniors how it's done!
"When I saw her receiving her medals in Beijing it was a proud moment for me as a coach, but I was also proud of her parents. I've got nothing but admiration for them for moving down here to let Ellie follow her dream — it takes guts to up sticks like that."
So what's the secret to cultivating a Paralympic champion?
"It's a combination of things, really," says Billy, who celebrates his 50th birthday today.
"Our training programme is pretty tough. We take a holistic approach — it's not just about jumping in the pool and swimming around. You have to consider what you're eating, when you're eating it, what time you're going to bed, things like that. I'm not going to tell anyone they can't have the odd bag of chips or bar of chocolate, but around the competitions it does get a bit stricter.
"Discipline is probably the most important quality. You won't go far without it."
One big challenge on the horizon for Ellie and her team mates is preparation for the London Paralympics in 2012. "I can't wait," she says.
"It's is four years away but hopefully it'll come around quickly. Beijing was amazing but, hopefully, London will be even better."
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