Ellie Simmonds, swimmer

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Ellie Simmonds has competed at four Paralympic Games, winning five gold medals and breaking world records on the way. She first came to national attention at the age of 13, when she won two golds at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, and became the youngest person ever to be awarded an MBE a few months later. Ellie is the youngest of five children and was born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism. Swimming was central to her life from a very early age, and her ambition to compete at the highest level was sparked by watching the Athens 2004 Paralympics on TV at the age of nine, when her mother told her she could take part at any age, as long as she was good enough. She became the face of the London 2012 Paralympics and won a further two gold medals, followed by another gold in Rio in 2016. Shortly after taking part in the Tokyo Paralympics last year, she announced her retirement from competitive swimming at the age of 26. She recently presented TV documentaries on conservation and on the controversies surrounding drug treatments for achondroplasia. DISC ONE: Proud by Heather Small DISC TWO: Own It by Stormzy ft Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy DISC THREE: Toxic by Britney Spears DISC FOUR: Lose Yourself by Eminem DISC FIVE: Paradise by Coldplay DISC SIX: Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves DISC SEVEN: Unforgettable by French Montana feat. Swae Lee DISC EIGHT: Rocket Man by Elton John BOOK CHOICE: The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins LUXURY ITEM: A diary and pen CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Rocket Man by Elton John Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.6	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them
0:13.9	if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.5	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:21.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:43.4	My cast away this week is the Paralympian Ellie Simmons.
0:46.9	Growing up in the West Midlands, she was a water baby.
0:49.7	Her family house had a pool at the bottom of the garden.
0:52.4	I sensed swimming was good for my body, she remembers, and I loved being able to move fast.
0:57.6	And boy was she fast. Before she hit double figures, she was swimming competitively,
1:02.4	showing the ferocity and speed that would later see her likened to a piranha in the pool.
1:07.6	By 2008, at just 13 years old, she was the youngest competitor at the Paralympics in Beijing.
1:14.2	She won two gold medals, gaining national attention when she burst into tears of relief after
1:19.5	her victory was announced. A few months later, she became the youngest person ever to receive an
1:25.1	MBE. By 2012, she was the poster girl for the London Paralympics, where she won another two gold
1:31.3	medals in world record times, followed by another gold and another world record in Rio in 2016.
1:38.0	She announced her retirement from competitive swimming last autumn, at the age of 26.
1:42.9	More recently, she presented the BBC One documentary, A World Without Dwarfism,
1:47.6	exploring a controversial new drug that some argue could bring an end to a condra plazia.
1:52.9	The genetic condition she was born with, and the most common cause of the disability that
1:57.2	has restricted her growth, though not her progress. She says, I've always been focused
	...

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