Ellie Simmonds

She/Her

Retired Athlete and presenter

I’m a retired paralympic swimmer, having gone to four paralympic games. In Beijing 2008 I was 13 years old coming away with 2 Gold Medals. Since announcing my retirement after Tokyo 2020, I went on Strictly come dancing, representing the dwarfism community. In 2024 I won a BAFTA for my documentary ‘Ellie Simmonds – Finding my secret family’. Following on from that I was part of the coverage of the Olympic Games in paris with Eurosport and Discovery plus. I was also part of Channel 4’s leading coverage of the paris paralympics.

Q&A

Ellie Simmonds

As a role model, what advice would you give a disabled person at the start of their career?

How has your work impacted the disabled community or raised awareness about disability issues?

What are your future goals or aspirations in your field or in disability advocacy?

What do you do to switch off and have fun?

What or who brings you joy?

Do you prefer dogs or cats?

What is the one thing you would change if you could?

What barriers do you think still need to be addressed to improve the lives of disabled people?

Useful links

Ellie Simmonds

Areas of expertise

Sport, Television, radio, podcast

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