Eleanor simmonds biography book

She came to national attention when she competed in the Summer Paralympics in Beijing , winning two gold medals for Great Britain. She was the youngest member of the team, at the age of In , 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 m freestyle, and a further gold medal at the Rio Paralympics in , this time setting a world record for the m medley.

Simmonds was born in Derbyshire, and is an adoptee.

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Simmonds, who has achondroplasia , became interested in swimming at the age of five. She studied Psychology at Loughborough University in England. At the age of 13, Simmonds was the youngest British athlete [ 10 ] at the Summer Paralympics in Beijing , competing in the 50m, m and m freestyle , 50m butterfly , and m Individual Medley. On 1 September , Simmonds repeated her gold performance to win the m freestyle at the Summer Paralympics in London, in which she took five seconds off the World Record time.

On 12 September , at the Rio Paralympics, Simmonds defended her gold medal for the m individual medley setting a new world record, the first below 3 minutes at In addition, Simmonds has won ten gold World Championship titles, [ 2 ] and swims in the S6 disability category. On 2 September , Simmonds announced her Paralympic retirement after missing out on a medal in the Tokyo Paralympics.

After retiring from competitive swimming, Simmonds has gone on to present for BBC Sport, including for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games [ 18 ] and the Paralympics. Since , Simmonds has been one of several British Olympians and Paralympians to feature in adverts for British Gas. In August , Simmonds won the fourth series of Cooking with the Stars.

Her victory in a time of She took gold in the S6 m with a new world record; gold in the S6 m again with a new world record; silver in the S6 m and a bronze in the S6 50m.