“It's hard to stay at the top. There's a cheesy saying isn't there: it's easy to get to the top but once you're there it's harder to stay there, and I'm fully aware of that.”

British retired Paralympic swimmer

Ellie Simmonds is a British retired Paralympic swimmer, born in 1994. She competed in S6 events and came to national attention at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. At those Games, she was the youngest member of the Great Britain team, at 13, and won two gold medals. Her profile is closely tied to that early success and to her career as a Paralympian swimmer.