Ellie Simmonds: The best is yet to come

The 18-year-old British superstar heads into Montreal 2013 a four-time world champion, but still feels she has a lot left to give. 11 Aug 2013

A picture of a woman swimming, paralympic swimming

Eleanor Simmonds from Great Britain during the 2011 IPC Swimming European Championship's women 400m Freestyle S6 race in Berlin

ⒸCamera 4

By IPC

“It’s a good thing to have a major competition after London. It helps to motivate you. Rio is the long-game, it’s in your sights but that’s the long term focus. It’s great to have a competition each year.”

A move to train in Loughborough, Great Britain and a new coach from next month means that Eleanor Simmonds is more confident than ever heading into the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships, which start in Montreal, Canada on Monday (12 August).

Simmonds who is the world champion in the 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle S6 and 200m individual medley, lit up the Aquatics Centre at the London 2012 Paralympic Games winning two golds in the 200m individual medley and 400m freestyle.

“After London I had three months off just to get myself recovered. After Beijing all the focus was on London and it being a home Games”, said Simmonds who has been making the most of the spotlight.

“I also had loads of opportunities so I just grasped them all and enjoyed myself, but it was hard to get back into the pool being so low in motivation thinking ‘what have I got to look forward to now?’

“But I think you just naturally get back into the pool and having the World Champs helped.”

The 18 year-old swimmer feels she is handling the pressure resulting from having won so many medals at such a young age.

“You do feel like you’ve got pressure going into competitions but it’s good. Sometimes it’s hard but it shows that Paralympic sport is up there with so many people watching London 2012, and with 17,500 people cheering you on.

“Some days you think ‘oh gosh, really?’ You just want to be normal but there’s a good part to it as well.”

This will be Simmonds last championship with Billy Pye, her coach since the start of her swimming career. She wants to repay him by having a strong showing in the Montreal pool.

“Training has been going well, really well. It will be my last competition with Bill and I want to go out on a high for him because of everything he’s done for me over the past eight years.

“I’ll be doing six events at the worlds, so a busy schedule. I’m very much looking forward to the 100m breaststroke as well. I did a personal best at trials and it’s always quite a fun event for me because there’s no pressure and I can just go out there and race.”

On retaining all of her world titles and maybe adding some more, Simmonds thinks that it will be difficult with the field she will be up against, including China’s 2010 World Championship bronze medallist Lingling Song and from London 2012 Tanja Groepper of Germany.

“It’s gonna be tough. I’m just going out to race. I try not to put too much pressure on myself, especially this year having a few months off.

“It’s a good thing to have a major competition after London. It helps to motivate you. Rio is the long-game, it’s in your sights but that’s the long term focus. It’s great to have a competition each year.”

The move in September after Montreal is sure to make a difference to Simmond’s preparations ahead of Rio 2016.

“I’m really excited about moving to Loughborough”, she said:

“I haven’t reached my full potential yet. There’s always gains to make.”

Eleanor Simmonds will be in action in the 100m backstroke, 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 50m freestyle S6, 100m breaststroke SB6 and 200m individual medley SM6.

The 2013 IPC Swimming Championships will begin from 12-18 August in Montreal, Canada. You can watch highlights on Channel 4 if you are in the UK or live on ParalympicSport.TV.

Follow @IPCSwimming on Twitter or at Facebook.com/IPCSwimming for updates, world records and behind the scenes pictures.