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Eleanor

Simmonds

It's so easy to forget Ellie is only 17 and already has competed in two Paralympic Games and won an incredible four gold medals.

She has a wonderful work ethic and is just a brilliant advertisment for swimming - you couldn't ask for a better ambassador. 

She was under a massive amount of pressure before the Games - there was a massive 50m picture of her on the side of Westfield on the way to the Park. 

It's terrifying enough when you start seeing adverts for the Games but to see yourself in an enormous advert like that is another thing completely.

However, one factor she didn't have to deal with in Beijing was reclassification, which was a hot topic for her American rival Victoria Arlen before the swimming meet had even begun in London.

Because of her size, her body shape means she has to cope with a lot of drag and she decelerates quickly, which is exactly what you don't want for a 50m - GIles Long on Ellie Simmonds

Although Arlen was given the green light to compete, the whole process was a shock to Ellie, not knowing the fate of one of her two main rivals.

Her coach Billy Pye did a great job to shut out what was going on around her and focus on those basic things - that she's in London to win a swimming race, not to win a piece of metal. 

The one area where she did better than I expected was in the 50m freestyle. I didn't think she had a cat in hell's chance of getting a medal, so to sneak a bronze in the way she did was phenomenal. 

She's quick out of the blocks but she doesn't get the distance because of her size, her body shape means she has to cope with a lot of drag and she decelerates quickly, which is exactly what you don't want for a 50m. 

And she didn't have the straight-line speed to beat Arlen in the 100m freestyle, but a silver in that event to complement the 400m free and 200m individual medley golds is just brilliant.

And something else that really impressed me about Ellie - the way she was glorious in victory but magnanimous in defeat, exactly what you want from your sporting role model. 

You get to a point where you can't really do any more in the sport - Giles Long on Ellie Simmonds

Although she's so far ahead of the rest of the field, especially in the IM, in Paralympic sport, just when you think you have it cracked, that's when it spanks you and we saw it at the London Games with the Chinese swimmers who we have never seen before. 

They have a fantastic system of identifying swimmers, keeping them secret and then unleashing them on the rest of the world when the big meets come up. That's where Paralympic sport is at the moment. 

Sooner or later, someone else who is brilliant will come out of the woodwork and do to Ellie what she has been doing to the rest of the world.

I can't see her shifting from Swansea, she has a great set up with Billy. The next thing that she really needs to think about is how does she continue to improve. 

As for the future, she could go on realistically for another three, maybe even four more Games. 

Personally, I think she will only go on for another one or two. You get to a point where you can't really do any more in the sport.