Former professional athlete Ellie Simmonds competed in four Paralympic Games in the sport of swimming, achieving a total of eight Paralympic medals with five of them being gold. Ellie made her international debut on the British Para-Swimming team at the age of 12 at the World Championships in Durban and was the youngest member of Paralympics GB at the age of 13 in Beijing 2008. That same year, she became the youngest person ever to be awarded an MBE from the Queen. Following on from a successful home games in London 2012, she was awarded an OBE. After her third games in 2016 she took a gap year from the sport and went travelling the world. In 2021, after 15 years of international competition and having competed at Tokyo 2020, Ellie called time on her sport.

Away from sport, Ellie is an ambassador for Scouts, WaterAid and a patron of the Dwarfs Sports Association UK. Currently Ellie is on the board of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 and a trustee for United by Birmingham 2022 Charity.