Northampton High School student selected for Team GB Paralympics team for Rio 2016

A dream come true for Ellie Robinson, a pupil at Northampton High School, who has been selected to compete at the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016

Ellie Robinson, a pupil at Northampton High School has been selected by The British Paralympic Association (BPA) as one of the 31 swimmers who will compete for ParalympicsGB at Rio 2016.

She will join the formidable list of Paralympic multi-medallists including Ollie Hynd, Ellie Simmonds, Charlotte Henshaw, James Crisp, Claire Cashmore and Sascha Kindred. It is extra special as Simmonds, who became a household name in the UK following her incredible performances at Beijing in 2008 and at London 2012, inspired Ellie to take up swimming after watching her in London. 

In June last year Ellie said that she was striving to be selected for the Paralympic Games in Tokyo 2020 so to be selected for Rio 2016 is a dream come true.

Ellie joined the Junior School at Northampton High School in September 2008. At this point she started weekly swimming lessons with the PE department and she regularly represented the school in a range of sporting activities. The PE department received a flyer in 2012 about the Northamptonshire Disability Sport Weekend which they forwarded to Ellie’s mother and encouraged her to attend. It was here that she was picked up by Northampton Swimming Club and two years ago her talent was identified by British Swimming at a local swimming event.

At the British Gas ASA National Para-Swimming Championships last year Ellie won the Gold medal in the MC 50m Butterfly and silver medals in the MC 50m and 100m freestyle and holds the British Record for the 50m Butterfly and the World Record for the 100m Butterfly for the S6 classification.

At the recent IPC European Swimming Championships in Madeira Ellie’s results were:

50m butterfly – silver

50m freestyle – bronze

100m freestyle – bronze

400m freestyle – bronze

200m individual medley – 4th place

Mrs Hackett, Director of Sport at Northampton High School, said:

“We are all delighted to hear that Ellie has been selected for Rio 2016. We are immensely proud of her and her achievement and will be supporting her all the way. We are sure that Ellie’s hard work and determination will ensure that she will build on her considerable successes and look forward to cheering for her at the Paralympics this Summer.”

Penny Briscoe MBE, ParalympicsGB Chef de Mission for Rio 2016, said:

“Recent World and European competitions suggest that we could be looking at a big medal haul once again. Their performances at the recent European Championships have demonstrated the strength in depth that we have in this team and how exceptional these athletes are.

“The pool is one of the many places where competition at every Games just keeps getting tougher and it is going to be a real battleground for our athletes again in Rio. I can’t wait to watch them compete and cheer them on.

“I wholeheartedly congratulate them on their individual achievements to reach this stage of being selected for ParalympicsGB and wish them luck in their final preparations.”

British Para-Swimming National Performance Director Chris Furber believes that this team is a reflection on the hard work undertaken by the programme over the last two years.

“We have an exciting and capable team selected for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games,” Furber said.

 “We had an excellent trials that saw not only our experienced athletes stepping up but also 14 debutants fighting for and deserving their place on the team as well.”