Ellen Gandy

Ellen Gandy

Personal information
Full name	Ellen May Gandy
Nickname	"Elly"
National team	Great Britain Australia
Born	(1991-08-15) 15 August 1991 Bromley, England
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	60 kg (9 st 6 lb; 132 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Butterfly
Club	Nunawading
Coach	Rohan Taylor
Medal record Women's swimming Representing Great Britain World Championships (LC) Silver medal – second place 2011 Shanghai 200 m butterfly European Championships (LC) Silver medal – second place 2008 Eindhoven 4×200 m freestyle Bronze medal – third place 2010 Budapest 200 m butterfly Representing England Commonwealth Games Silver medal – second place 2010 Delhi 100 m butterfly Silver medal – second place 2010 Delhi 4×100 m medley Bronze medal – third place 2010 Delhi 200 m butterfly

Ellen May Gandy (born 15 August 1991), also known by her nickname Elly Gandy, is a British-born Australian former female butterfly swimmer. She represented Great Britain and England until 2012, and had almost all of her elite-level success under those flags. She represented Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics in the 200m butterfly swimming event, and was the 2011 World silver medalist at that distance.

Following a disappointing 2012 Games, Gandy expressed an intention to swim for Australia, having lived and trained there since 2007, and served a period of ineligibility in order to do so. She represented Australia for the first time at a FINA World Cup event in Eindhoven in August 2013. She competed for Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games but failed to medal. Gandy did not qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics, effectively ending her elite swimming career.

Under her new flag, Gandy broke the Australian and Commonwealth short-course 200m butterfly record. She remains the British long course record-holder in the 100 and 200 metre butterfly.

Swimming career

At the age of 13, Gandy was selected by talent scouts to be a member of Britain's Smart Track squad of super talents formed by performance director Bill Sweetenham.

As a 16 year old she competed at the 2008 Olympics in the 200 m butterfly.

On 19 March 2009 Gandy swam a European record time in the women's 200m butterfly at the British Championships in Sheffield. Her time of 2:04.83 beat the previous record of 2:05.61 set by Poland's Otylia Jędrzejczak and was almost two seconds faster than Jemma Lowe's previous British record.

In 2011 at the World Championships in Shanghai, Gandy claimed silver in the 200m butterfly. She was second to Jiao Liuyang, China's Olympic silver medallist of 2008, and ahead of the bronze medallist Liu Zige, Olympic champion for China in 2008.

Gandy secured her place in the British team for the 2012 Olympics with victory in the 100 m and 200 m butterfly in the trials at the London Aquatics Centre. At the Olympics she finished in 19th place.

She competed for Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Personal life

Gandy started school at Balgowan Primary School, Beckenham, UK and then went to Langley Park School for Girls, Beckenham before moving to Melbourne, Australia in 2007 where she attended Carey Baptist Grammar School. Since her switch, Gandy has publicly adopted the first name Elly, the name by which she has been known privately in Australia.

Following her swimming career, Gandy qualified to practice law in Australia, qualifying as a solicitor and working as a corporate counsel.

See also

• List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women)
• List of Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming (women)

External links

• Ellen Gandy at World Aquatics
• Ellen Gandy at Swimrankings.net
• Ellen Gandy at Swimming Australia at the Wayback Machine (archived 6 September 2015)
• Ellen Gandy at Team GB
• Ellen Gandy at Olympics.com
• Ellen Gandy at Olympedia
• Ellen Gandy at Commonwealth Games Australia
• Ellen Gandy at the Commonwealth Games Federation (archived)