Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Paralympian who won five gold medals, set world records, was the youngest competitor at Beijing 2008, and later became the poster girl for London 2012.
On the island
Eight records
This was the song that I think they used in the bid for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. I think that was in 2005. I remember the likes of David Beckham, Kelly Holmes, being on the TV screen and London won. This whole song just brings me back to that 2005 moment and that London 2012 and the whole words just mean so much to me.
Stormzy featuring Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy
So I've gone for Own It by Stormsey featuring Ed Sheeran and Burner Boy. This was a song that I played a lot in lockdown. My coach was like, just escape London for a bit, just come go home to my parents' house in Aldridge for a weekend, not thinking that four months later I'll still be at my parents' house. We had four months where we weren't able to access swimming pools. There was the uncertainty of where the Paralympics are going to be on. Then finding out they were delayed a year and I was able to stop. I was able to just be with my parents and what was that like for you? It was just amazing. Like we got so close. I turned their their kitchen into a bit of a gym because no access to a swimming pool. Remember putting these headphones on.
This is Britney Spears Toxic. It reminds me so so much of the early days in swimming. The whole time where it was just the most incredible team, both in Swansea and the Paralympic team and the whole world-class programme. And we used to always do initiations. And I remember me. Hang on a minute, what? Yeah, I know. It varied from karaoke to dancing to dance. Me, Rhiannon Henry, Claire Cashmore. We had already been on the team for a couple of years, and especially those two girls, they went to Athens and we put our hands up saying, Why don't we do like the first initial like like show really to to start this initiation of so we like dressed up we got our um little hand luggage suitcases we dressed like pigtails on the side with boppers on our head bright red blusher on our cheeks freckles like the love freckles type thing put our shorts on really really high you know when you dance like really like and we were like saucy dancing yeah saucy dancing that's the word saucy but it wasn't really like that but we weren't because it was just absolutely hilarious and it was to Britney Spears toxic we had a routine you know I could probably do the routine now if it I think you should do it and Desert Islanders
This song, M and M, Lose Yourself. Reminds me so much of London 2012 and not just 2012 but the whole swimming career of those moments in the core room before you're about to race both Heats finals. You and your seven, eight other competitors, you go in the room like 20 minutes before you're about to get called out behind the block. I used to listen to music in the core room. This song would be the last song that I would listen to before my name would get called out because the lyrics to me it's like you've only got one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. And another part of the lyric is on the surface you look calm and ready but inside you you're about to drop bombs. So again I looked very calm probably. I don't watch myself race back I don't like see myself on TV but I remember yeah people would probably see my persona on the surface calm ready but in the inside I would be so nervous, so so nervous, shaking. I remember sometimes, like, feeling like, why am I putting myself through this? But that song reminds me, like, this is why I do it: adrenaline rush, that whole nervousness, excitement, everything. But I'm about to go out there, and I've only got this one shot. You've just got to go out there and give it everything you got. So, my competitiveness is linked to this song. So, it's so funny because now I don't really like listening to the song. It's only like my core room song, the song that I have to use when yeah, this is like that pumped up, competitive Ellie. This is that song where, yeah, if you want to go and get something done, you listen to this, and you're like a lion about to be unleashed.
So, we're gonna hear a Cold Play Paradise. This song reminds me of the closing ceremony, and not just the closing ceremony, the whole Paralympic movement and the whole Paralympics. Because this closing ceremony, you had the likes of Coldplay, but also Jay-Z, Rihanna, you know, them two individuals attending a Paralympics closing ceremony. That shows that, like, the Paralympics means something and it showcases what the Paralympics is. But also, as well, it reminds me of like my teammates. And we changed the song actually. So, do you know how it's like Para, Para, Paradise? We actually changed the song to Para, Para, Paralympics. And it was just like this song, and it reminds me of the team and the whole Paralympic movement.
Katrina and the Waves, Walking on Sunshine. I love this song. It shows as well, like even through the darkest times, there's always going to be that spark of sunshine and just that whole groundiness. But also, this song reminds me of my dad. Without them, and especially the lights of that relationship that I have with both my mom and my dad, I wouldn't have got through not just the good times but the bad times. You know, they're at the end of the phone when I need a cry, they're at the end of the phone when I'm joyous, when I'm bouncing, when I've got amazing news to tell them. I'm like, ring them up, dad, dad, oh my gosh, this have you heard about this?
French Montana featuring Swae Lee
So my song choice is Unforgettable French Montana. I think this song reminds me so much of that year of traveling. I was able to be a normal person, go partying, drinking, all that type of thing, which I've never done before. Dancing on the dance floor, having a few too many Jager bombs. That's when I've realised what Jaeger bombs actually are and they go to your head a bit. And being that whole different side of me, I was normally the Ellie Simmons, the swimmer, very strict, very focused. Whereas that year, I was able to just let loose, let be free and find me.
Rocket ManFavourite
Elton John, Rocket Man. I love Elton, but also I think for me, this Rocket Man, it's like now I've left that career behind, I've left that swimming, now I'm going into the next chapter, I'm going into space, I'm going into the unknown, I've retired, but now that whole world is out there, that whole excitement, that whole path, what shall I do? And this song really like resonates that with that. It reminds me of that next chapter, that next world. And yeah, this song for me is that the noodle is of life.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:09How is retirement serving you? Have you got used to not getting up at half past four in the morning yet?
Actually so nice to have extra sleep now. I'm not tired. I've got more energy. But yeah, also I do miss that routine that I had for so, so many years.
Presenter asks
2:34Which victory meant the most to you? Which was the sweetest?
Oh, I'm gonna I have to say it London 2012 that 400 metres freestyle. I remember going to the Aquatic Centre in Stratford and just seeing it as a building site. So I think it wasn't just about those games but it was the whole journey going into it. London 2012 made Paralympians household names so it was going in as favourite really for those games.
Presenter asks
6:16When did you first start to become aware that you were smaller than the people around you?
My parents, they've always like told us that we're different, you know, we've got a chondriplasia, a form of dwarfism. I've been involved in dwarf sports associations since I was a dot really. ... I remember being in the corner of the playground. I think we were playing like hide and seek or something and I was the the one that was counting the seeker and I remember thinking like ... oh wow, like I'm small. But that's all I remember thinking the thing.
The keepsakes
The book
Suzanne Collins
After, like, twenty twelve I started to read more and this was the first three books that I couldn't put down. I would read them and be hooked on them.
The luxury
I think it's something that's always with me. I've had them for years and years and I collect them and it's great because I look back at the memories but also I write down everything on them.
Presenter asks
8:43Who were your role models when you were growing up?
I remember sitting on the sofa watching Athens 2004 Olympics and Paralympics. I remember Kelly Holmes coming away with two gold medals and just being absolutely incredible. But then sitting on the sofa watching Athens 2004 Paralympics, watching Nairi Lewis swim her 100m backstroke S6. I remember seeing her get her gold medal. And I said to my mum, Oh, how old do you have to be to go to a Paralympics? Like, what do you have to do? And she was like, You just have to be really good. I think you could go any age. That switch was like, Light bulb moment. ... I want to be a Paralympian. I want to get a Paralympic gold medal. Like, that is my dream. It started on that sofa.
Presenter asks
13:16Are there two Ellies – Ellie in the pool and Ellie out of the pool? Tell me about the other Ellie.
Very focused. In some sense, when I'm in the pool, a bit selfish. I think I noticed that more and more now I've left. Very, very competitive. I remember, like, as a kid before making Beijing 2008, I had like a whole list of all the swimmers that I wanted to beat. And it was it, was it? It was probably on like a little notebook. But I remember I used to tick them off every time I won or beat them. ... Yeah, literally. Like literally so competitive. I wasn't like that later on in my my career.
“It's that clearness. There's no impact on the body. It's very much the buoyancy, the feeling of freedom in the water when you've got all these people watching you, the crowd.”
“I want to be a Paralympian. I want to get a Paralympic gold medal. Like, that is my dream. It started on that sofa.”
“I was not a fan. I got really, really angry, first of all, when I first saw it. I was like, why do we need a drug that is going to change us? I wouldn't be where I am if I hadn't got dwarfism. I wouldn't have met the people that I have that have the community. And it's amazing community. I'm with my partner, The Love of My Life. I met him at the charity, you know, and like it's brought so many people together. And yet, is this drug going to change that? Why would someone adult make that decision for their child to have an injection every single day to change them? And most of all, it was the unknown. What actually is this drug? And I wanted to find out more.”
“I would save Eltinger on Rocket Man. It brings me joy, and it's a song that, yeah, I'll love on the island.”