“A lot of the time, when I swim, I close my eyes because it is definitely lonely,” Ellie Simmonds says as she considers the emotional, physical and psychological demands she endures in the pool year after year. Simmonds has won eight medals, and five of them are gold, at three Paralympic Games but she should be praised most for her honesty in addressing the brutal rituals of swimming and the sometimes damaging environment of elite sport.
She should be commended for the fact that, in a Paralympic and Olympic year, she stands up for herself and her teammates in an often isolating atmosphere that has pushed her to the brink of retirement and which, even now in this interview, can make her eyes fill with tears.
Written by Donald McRae
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jan/11/ellie-simmonds-swimming-rio-tokyo-paralympics-interview-donald-mcrae under the title “Ellie Simmonds: ‘Going into Rio, swimming for me had been life or death’”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
