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Eleanor May Simmonds (born 11 November 1994) is a British retired Paralympics 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.
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.
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 Radio Times. Commonwealth Games 2022 presenters. Retrieved 31 October 2023 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.
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. IMDB. Ellie Simmonds. Retrieved 31 October 2023
Her documentaries include A World without Dwarfism (2022), The Guardian. Retrieved 31 October 2023 Finding My Secret Family (2023), The Guardian. Retrieved 31 October 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.
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.
In January 2019, Simmonds was appointed to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee board.
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.
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