ELLIE Robinson’s meteoric rise to the summit of Paralympic swimming saw her win gold at the tender age of 15.
Here we get to know the retired champion, who is part of the line-up for Channel 4’s Paralympics presenting team.
Ellie Robinson, born on August 30, 2001, is a British former Paralympic swimmer from Northampton.
At birth she was diagnosed with a rare type of dwarfism known as cartilage-hair hypoplasia.
Ellie was also diagnosed with Perthes disease in November 2012, a condition affecting the hip joint in children, requiring her to undergo daily physiotherapy and ultimately leading to her retirement.
She stopped training following the diagnosis, but returned to the pool in 2014.
She made her international debut for Great Britain a year later at the International Deutsche Meisterschaften in Berlin, where she she set a world record in the 100m butterfly with a time of 1:26.30.
Her Paralympic swimming career also started with a bang, taking home gold and bronze medals at the 2016 Rio Paralympics at just 15 years old.
Ellie’s impressive performances included a new Paralympic record time of 35.58 seconds in the women’s S6 50m butterfly event, beating the reigning champion Oksana Khrul into second place.
She told BBC Radio Northampton: “Every athlete is different but I like to think I was a big occasion swimmer. I used to love getting hyped up.
“I never really used to swim that well before the very last big competition of the season, so for me, the more excited and the more hyped up I got, the better I used to swim. Such a drama queen, so high maintenance.”
Ellie retired from swimming at the age of just 20 after the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
Following her time in athletics, she embarked on a new chapter as an author, and in April 2023 her first book was released, titled Gold Medal Mysteries: Thief on the Track.
On how she transitioned into her new career, Ellie told the BBC: “I think there’s this kind of narrative that there’s a bit of an identity crisis or they struggle to transition into that next area.
“It’s been such an integral part of one’s identity that you almost kind of grieve the loss of this huge piece of your life.
“I was quite fortunate, it was in lockdown when nothing was really happening — training had kind of ground to a halt.”
During this downtime before the delayed Games in Tokyo, Ellie started writing and studying for a history degree.
She explained: “I was able to find what my next step was while I was still an athlete.
“I can’t say I hacked it, but I feel like my transition was incredibly smooth because I knew what that next step was, and I naturally kind of fell into it.”
Ellie competed in butterfly and freestyle in S6 and S7 disability swimming.
These categories include people with short stature, those with co-ordination moderately affected on one side, athletes with co-ordination highly affected in the lower trunk and legs, swimmers with movement affected from a low to moderate level in the arms, and also the absence of limbs.
She enjoyed great success at major competitions in these disciplines, including:
Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games
London 2019 World Para Swimming Championships
2018 Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast, Australia
Rio 2016 Paralympic Games
Ellie Robinson is part of the team providing coverage of the Paris 2024 Paralympics.
All of the action will be broadcast live on Channel 4 in the UK.
The Games kicks off on August 28, 2024, with the opening ceremony starting at 7pm, and the closing ceremony being held on September 8, 2024 from 8pm.
Spectators in the US can tune in on either Peacock or NBC Olympics platforms.
Channel 4 have a star-studded line-up of hosts and pundits for their coverage of the 2024 Paralympics
The presenting team is headed up by former Paralympian turned TV host Ade Adepitan.
Five-time Paralympic swimming champion Ellie Simmonds is making her debut with the broadcaster, alongside actress, producer and former Strictly winner Rose Ayling-Ellis.
Veteran sports broadcaster Clare Balding also appears on-screen, as does racing-driver-turned-commentator Billy Monger and Invictus Games medallist and presenter JJ Chalmers.
The line-up also includes adventurer and former rugby union player Ed Jackson, TV and radio presenter Vick Hope, comedian Josh Pugh and sports presenter Lee McKenzie.
There’s also an experienced team who are there to commentate, including in the athletics, the wheelchair rugby and the equestrian events.
Further expert analysis comes courtesy of multi-Paralympic medallist Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson and Paralympic gold-medal sprinter Libby Clegg.
