Ellie Simmonds OBE is a Paralympic champion with five gold medals and 10 World Championship titles to her name. And now she’s looking to add a glitterball to her trophy cabinet as she swaps the swimming pool for the ballroom on Strictly Come Dancing 2022.
Born with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, Ellie hasn’t let her disability hold her back. At the age of 13, as the youngest British athlete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, Ellie won two gold medals, an achievement that saw her named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.
Winning two more golds at the London 2012 Summer Paralympics and a further gold in Rio 2016, Ellie — made an OBE in 2013 for services to Paralympic sport — retired from competitive swimming in 2020, becoming a pundit for BBC Sport while helping to raise awareness of dwarfism through her documentary Ellie Simmonds: A World Without Dwarfism? for BBC1.
Now, after being paired with her pro dance partner Nikita Kuzmin on the Strictly launch show, Ellie — following Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty who took part last year — hopes to make the dwarfism community proud as she takes to the dancefloor on the first live show of the series.
Here Ellie, 27, takes a well-earned break from training to tell us all about how she’s ditching water sports for waltzing…
How thrilled are you to be taking part in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing?
"Oh my gosh! I keep having to pinch myself — I'm doing Strictly! It was soooo hard keeping this secret as I’d wanted to tell everyone. I’m literally bursting with excitement! I’ve been watching Strictly from as far back as I can remember; it’s a traditional lead-up to Christmas with my family and it’s a genuine privilege to be part of it."
What’s your motivation for being on the show?
"Strictly Come Dancing has done an amazing thing in raising awareness of disability. Last year, we had EastEnders’ Rose Ayling-Ellis, who’s deaf and, in past series, Paralympic athletes Will Bayley, Jonnie Peacock and Lauren Steadman. This is a chance for me to be there for the dwarfism community. People have been messaging me already — not just in the UK but worldwide — saying how the community is so proud of me for doing Strictly."
Did you have any reservations about taking part? How’s training going with Nikita?
"Oh, this is totally out of my comfort zone! Nikita’s never danced with anyone with dwarfism before, and I've never, ever danced before but I’m interested to see how our partnership will work. How do we hold each other? How are we going to adapt? What are the steps gonna be? I've got metal plates in my legs — how are we gonna figure it out? I'm very nervous to try things out — but hopefully people will see me on TV and think: 'Well, if she can dance, I can do it as well'."
So how would you rate your dancing skills?
"I've always thought I can dance on the dancefloor at a disco, you know, when you go out with your friends. And, on the Paralympic teams, we do initiations where we dance as a laugh. So I initially thought I was alright — but when I took my very first dance steps on Strictly I was like: 'Nooo, I'm not'. I'm so new to it but I’m excited to learn."
What dances are you most looking forward to?
"I need to learn all the names of the dances first and try them; until I try them all, I won't know what dances I like best. But I'm quite a bouncy person and I like the energy of the jive. And I can't wait to do… what are they called… the lifts [makes a 'throwing' gesture]. I was about to say: 'Throwing me up in the air', then! Can you imagine seeing me flying across the dancefloor? Ha, ha!"
Are you enjoying being Strictly-fied?
"I’m loving wearing all the make-up, the costumes, and sequins. I'm used to having my hair wet, wearing no make-up, smelling of chlorine, being in a swimming costume and not caring what I look like. But the glamour on Strictly is something else. I've had hair extensions in and I'm like: 'Oh my God, this is HAIR!'"
What’s the camaraderie like among all the celebrities?
"We all get on so well. Our WhatsApp group is buzzing and we're chatting to each other all the time. It just feels like a family. I know people always say that on the TV but it really is."
Do you hope viewers will be inspired by your appearance on Strictly?
"It's about representation of all on TV, which we never had as kids, but it's getting better and better now in terms of representation of those with disabilities. You want to show people that it's not just about six-foot models. It would be such a boring world if we were all the same. And I think it helps kids, it helps the world, it helps everyone to show that we're all different, so let's celebrate that."
Strictly Come Dancing's first live show airs on Saturday September 24 at 6.45pm on BBC1.
