Top 75 Ellie Simmonds Quotes

I feel really honoured to be in the Walk of Fame in Birmingham with so many great people already like Ozzy Osbourne.

I’m a big, big fan of cheesecake, so I love baking that.

Growing up, I was aware of being a dwarf but I felt I could do anything.

Watching Nyree Lewis get her medal in the 100 backstroke inspired me to want to go to a Paralympics and it just went on from there.

I wear adult sizes but chop off the arms and legs.

The highlight of my career was London 2012.

We had a trampoline in the garden that I used to play on lots which was great exercise.

Four Games is incredible. Especially as an nine-year-old watching Athens 2004. To think as a kid then I would not just go to one Games but four.

It can feel a bit surreal. Sometimes you’re talking to famous people and you think, ‘Oh gosh, I’m talking to Lewis Hamilton.’

It drives me forward knowing people are watching me and I have to swim well.

Having all that experience, and that success as well, at a Paralympics was just amazing but I don’t really remember much from Beijing, it was quite a blur.

I think what I’m most proud of about myself away from the pool, is being OK on my own.

I’ve swum with dolphins in Mozambique and with bull sharks off Mexico. They didn’t tell me how dangerous the sharks were until after I got out.

I lived in Swansea Marina and was a minute’s walk from the beach. I used to love going to Mumbles and visiting Gower with its fantastic beaches like Langland, Oxwich and Caswell.

My school have been so supportive in the balance between my sport and my studying, ever since I won the two golds in Beijing.

I grew up swimming. Our first house in Aldridge, in the West Midlands, had a pool at the bottom of the garden.

Swimming is only half of your life, so you have to think about what you’re going to do afterwards.

In China they don’t mind getting their cameras out, but I try to go with the flow. In countries where there is not so much disability visible on the streets, they want to know who you are and what you are doing.

I can’t do the whole going-out-all-night thing. I can’t even stay up until 10 P. M., I just fall asleep. My friends know that we have to meet at an earlier time.

My mum took me to swimming lessons when I was very young, four years old.

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.

My philosophy is that there is no point in being sad or hating who you are.

In Beijing when the Chinese athletes had a massive roar that gave me a buzz pretending they were shouting for me.

I think it’s really important to show people that there’s nothing different about us; especially as athletes – we train as hard as the Olympians.

Growing up, most of our family holidays were staycations in the U.K.

I didn’t really come on the scene nationally until 2008.

Coming into London having the experience of Beijing is really good.

I have grown up in a positive household.

I’m very competitive.

I was really keen on horse-riding, too, but I knew I had to give it up to give more time to swimming.

Swimming outside the pool is scary. I don’t like not knowing what’s underneath me – it’s quite dark in lakes. I swam in the sea in Australia around the Great Barrier Reef, though, and that was incredible because you could see exactly what was underneath you.

I love the 400m.

I don’t want to be stuck up. I’m just a normal person. My friends think of me as a normal friend, and I like that.

I was 8 when I started swimming training, but it wasn’t until I was 10 when it became more serious so over the next few years I slowly developed a better understanding of my diet.

I think there are definitely times when I feel the expectations on my shoulders and I think it’s because even before I race people expect me to get a gold medal and it’s not the case.

I’m OK travelling, meeting people, seeing the world with my own eyes.

The whole nation thinks I should be winning, winning, winning all the time and that’s a lot to take on my shoulders.

It’s really exciting to get the Paralympic sport out there and inspire the next generation – I remember watching the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games that inspired me to want to got to a Paralympic Games.

It’s nice to hope to inspire people out there who maybe have a little less motivation or who are low in confidence or self-belief to go out there and achieve.

Yes, my body is not a machine and I do get those moments when I think ‘Why am I doing this?’ I think it’s common among athletes and I’m sure people do experience it at work as well.

I spoke to my parents and my agent a year before Rio. I was like: ‘I don’t want to do this. I want to get away.’ They said: ‘Just grit your teeth for a year. Then you can have your break. And if you want to retire, you can retire then.’ I was in tears. I just hated it.

I don’t see it as a disability. I’m just a normal person, but a bit smaller than everyone else.

You only live once and you need to enjoy life, to go out and achieve whatever you want to.

I like Drake, I like Rihanna, I like Beyonce, I like Mumford and Sons, and Coldplay.

People expect you to get golds and it puts so much more pressure on you and if you don’t it’s like you have let yourself down. It is nerve-racking.

Sunday is my day of rest, which usually includes a lie-in, a pyjama day or just being with my family.

I’m a Scouts ambassador and I help out with dwarf sports.

I’m studying psychology at Loughborough and there are so many sportspeople here – you actually see top athletes walking around – but people see them all the time, so there’s no special treatment.

I’ve always been focused.

I’ve achieved my dream of getting a Paralympic gold medal and I’m very lucky that I’ve been to three Games where I’ve come away with five gold medals.

I think people shouldn’t think ‘I’m not normal, I’ve got a disability.’ Overcome that, go out there and enjoy your life and achieve something.

My plan of going to Tokyo has gone out of the window, but I was able to spend three to four months with my family and I’ve never been able to do that before.

I would have loved to sneak off and watch some of the horse events at the Paralympics and I know Lee Pearson, who’s the Olympic gold medallist in para-equestrianism, but because I was competing in the pool I had to watch it on TV.

Sometimes I’ll get reminded that I promote Paralympic sport and Paralympics GB. Yes, I have a role but I don’t feel like an idol.

Sport is a great thing to get involved with, it’s not just fitness but it also gets your competitive side out.

I jumped into my parents loft where I was actually able to go through all my cards, all the newspaper cuttings that my family collected, and it made me realise just how big London 2012 was – it was huge! That was a Games that I will never, ever forget and it was definitely my highlight.

You’re never going to lose your sport. It’s like riding a bike to be honest.

I love the ocean and I’m passionate about conservation and the environment.

When I was in Beijing, London, and also in Rio I was still a kid really, I didn’t feel pressure.

I love ‘Come Dine With Me.’

I feel I cope with pressure quite well.

Monday to Fridays I’m practically an athlete every hour of the day.

I’m quite shy at school.

If you’ve got a disabilty you’re normal, it’s just something that’s different.

As a swimmer I know how important it is to be fit, healthy and eat well.

I don’t watch my Rio races back. I’ll look at my London 2012 races a lot. But not Rio.

I’m the baby of the family and love it.

Being at home gives me such a big buzz and just makes me want to perform.

I’ve thought about doing sports psychology at university, but it’s quite hard.

As an older woman now, I feel the pressure more, I feel all those different aspects, I’m more aware of that. Whereas as a 13-year-old, as a 17-year-old, you just do swimming, you’re just doing it as sport where you don’t really think of all the outside bits.

I’m lucky I’ve been able to take control, as an older athlete, and pick who I work with.

Our parents were very generous, and they always encouraged us to find something we enjoyed and really get into it.

For me I normally rise up to a Paralympics, I love those pressured environments.

I recently met Michael Phelps. He is my absolute idol. I was totally starstruck. I did manage to get a few words out.

I’ve got to go out there and do a job and focus on swimming and do my own thing, and I think us athletes can go out there and perform no matter what… This is what we train to do.