Ellie Simmonds

Not to be confused with Elizabeth Simmonds.

Ellie Simmonds

OBE

Error creating thumbnail: Simmonds in 2025
Personal information
Full name	Eleanor May Simmonds
Nickname	Ellie
Born	(1994-11-11) 11 November 1994 Glossop, Derbyshire, England
Sport
Sport	Para swimming
Disability	Achondroplasia
Disability class	S6, SM6, SB6
Event(s)	freestyle, individual medley, breaststroke
Club	Camden Swiss Cottage Swimming Club, London
Coached by	Steve Bayley
Medal record Women's para swimming Representing Great Britain Event 1st 2nd 3rd Paralympic Games 5 1 2 World Championships 8 3 4 World Championships (25 m) 6 1 0 European Championships 7 2 0 Paralympic Games Gold medal – first place 2008 Beijing 100 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2008 Beijing 400 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2012 London 400 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2012 London 200 m individual medley SM6 Gold medal – first place 2016 Rio de Janeiro 200 m individual medley SM6 Silver medal – second place 2012 London 100m freestyle S6 Bronze medal – third place 2012 London 50m freestyle S6 Bronze medal – third place 2016 Rio de Janeiro 400 m freestyle S6 World Championships Gold medal – first place 2010 Eindhoven 100 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2010 Eindhoven 200 m individual medley SM6 Gold medal – first place 2010 Eindhoven 50 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2010 Eindhoven 400 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2013 Montreal 100 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2013 Montreal 400 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2013 Montreal 200 m medley SM6 Gold medal – first place 2015 Glasgow 200 m medley SM6 Silver medal – second place 2010 Eindhoven 4x100 m freestyle relay 34pts Silver medal – second place 2010 Eindhoven 4x100 m medley relay 34pts Silver medal – second place 2015 Glasgow 400 m freestyle S6 Bronze medal – third place 2010 Eindhoven 4x50 m medley relay 20pts Bronze medal – third place 2013 Montreal 50 m freestyle S6 Bronze medal – third place 2015 Glasgow 100 m breaststroke SB6 Bronze medal – third place 2015 Glasgow 4x100 m Freestyle Relay 34pts World Championships (25m) Gold medal – first place 2009 Rio de Janeiro 100 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2009 Rio de Janeiro 400 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2009 Rio de Janeiro 200 m individual medley SM6 Gold medal – first place 2009 Rio de Janeiro 4x100 m medley S6 Gold medal – first place 2009 Rio de Janeiro 4x100 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2009 Rio de Janeiro 50 m freestyle S6 Silver medal – second place 2009 Rio de Janeiro 200 m individual medley SM6 European Championships Gold medal – first place 2009 Reykjavik 50 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2009 Reykjavik 100 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2009 Reykjavik 400 m freestyle – S6 Gold medal – first place 2009 Reykjavik 200 m individual medley SM6 Gold medal – first place 2009 Reykjavik 4x100 m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2014 Eindhoven 400m freestyle S6 Gold medal – first place 2014 Eindhoven 100m breaststroke S6 Silver medal – second place 2014 Eindhoven 50m freestyle S6 Silver medal – second place 2014 Eindhoven 100m freestyle S6 Paralympic World Cup Gold medal – first place 2010 Manchester 200 m individual medley SM6

Eleanor May Simmonds (born 11 November 1994) is a British retired Paralympian swimmer who competed in S6 events. She came to national attention when she competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, winning two gold medals for Great Britain. She was the youngest member of the team, at the age of 13.

In 2012, she was again selected for the Great Britain squad, this time swimming at a home games in London. She won another two golds in London, including setting a World Record in the 400m freestyle, and a further gold medal at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, this time setting a world record for the 200m medley.

Early and personal life

Simmonds was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, and is an adoptee. She grew up in Aldridge, a part of the Metropolitan Walsall Borough, and completed her primary education at Cooper and Jordan CofE Primary before attending Aldridge School and later Olchfa School in Swansea.

Simmonds, who has achondroplasia, became interested in swimming at the age of five. She swam for Boldmere Swimming Club in Sutton Coldfield, under Head Coach Ashley Cox, but she and her mother moved to Swansea when Simmonds was 11 to take advantage of the city's world-class swimming pool. Simmonds has three sisters and a brother.

She studied Psychology at Loughborough University in England. She was in a relationship with Matt Dean until 2023.

Career

At the age of 13, Simmonds was the youngest British athlete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, competing in the 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle, 50m butterfly, and 200m Individual Medley. She won gold medals in the 100m and 400m freestyle events.

On 1 September 2012, Simmonds repeated her gold performance to win the 400m freestyle at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, in which she took five seconds off the World Record time. Two days later, on the evening of 3 September, she took Gold in the 200m Individual Medley, breaking the World Record that she had set in the qualifying round that morning.

On 12 September 2016, at the Rio Paralympics, Simmonds defended her gold medal for the 200m individual medley setting a new world record, the first below 3 minutes at 2:59.81 Simmonds also won a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.

In addition, Simmonds has won ten gold World Championship titles, and swims in the S6 disability category.

On 2 September 2021, Simmonds announced her Paralympic retirement after missing out on a medal in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

After retiring from competitive swimming, Simmonds has gone on to present for BBC Sport, including for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2024 Paralympics.

Since 2023, Simmonds has been one of several British Olympians and Paralympians to feature in adverts for British Gas.

In August 2024, Simmonds was a guest on the How to Fail podcast, hosted by Elizabeth Day.

Television career

On 7 August 2022, it was announced that Simmonds would be participating in the twentieth series of the BBC One show Strictly Come Dancing with her professional dance partner being Nikita Kuzmin. She was eliminated in Week 7 after losing the dance off to Molly Rainford and Carlos Gu.

Also, Simmonds competed on TV show The Great Celebrity Bake-Off (series 2, episode 2) and has appeared on a number of other television programmes including Saturday Night Takeaway, Ellie Simmonds: Swimming with Dolphins, Would I Lie to You? and The Crystal Maze.

Her documentaries include A World without Dwarfism (2022), Finding My Secret Family (2023), and Should I Have Children? (2025).

Simmonds' 2023 documentary Ellie Simmonds: Finding My Secret Family won Best Single Documentary at the 2024 British Academy Television Awards.

In August 2024, Simmonds won the fourth series of Cooking with the Stars.

Honours and awards

Simmonds won the 2008 BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.

Simmonds was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours. At 14 years old, she became the youngest person ever to have received this honour. She received the honour from Queen Elizabeth II on 18 February 2009. In March 2012, in the 200 m individual medley, she became the first swimmer to break a world record at London's Aquatics Centre. Her victory in a time of 3:08.14 broke her own previous best time by over half a second.

In 2011, Simmonds won the award for 'Best British Sporting Performance for an Athlete with Disability' at the Jaguar Academy of Sport Annual Awards. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London Simmonds won four medals, two golds, a silver and a bronze. She took gold in the S6 400m with a new world record; gold in the S6 200m again with a new world record; silver in the S6 100m and a bronze in the S6 50m. In celebration of her two gold medals, two Royal Mail postboxes were painted gold in her honour, one in Aldridge and one in Swansea.

Simmonds was elevated to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to Paralympic sport.

Sport

Simmonds is a patron of the Dwarf Sports Association UK, along with swimmer Matthew Whorwood. Simmonds says of the charity, "It's a charity that supports people of short stature and helps them get into sport. One of the highlights of the year is the convention we have in the spring. There's everything from power lifting to athletics."

In January 2019, Simmonds was appointed to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee board.

Young people

Simmonds is an ambassador for The Scout Association.

She is also a Girlguiding leader in Manchester, where her pack name is Aqua Owl.

Simmonds is an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust and worked closely on their Change A Girls life campaign.

Water

Simmonds is a WaterAid ambassador.

See also

• Swimming at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
• Swimming at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
• Swimming at the 2016 Summer Paralympics
• 2012 Olympics gold post boxes in the United Kingdom

External links

• Error creating thumbnail: File missing Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• Ellie Simmonds at British Swimming (archived)
• Ellie Simmonds at ParalympicsGB
• Eleanor Simmonds at the International Paralympic Committee
• Eleanor Simmonds at IPC.InfostradaSports.com (archived)
• Ellie Simmonds at IMDb