Eleanor "Ellie" Robinson MBE (born 30 August 2001) is an English retired swimmer.[1][2] Competing in SB6[3] and S6 classification events, Robinson holds the World record and the Paralympic record in the S6 50m butterfly and the World record in the 100m, setting both at the age of 13.
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Eleanor Robinson |
| Nickname | Ellie |
| Nationality | British |
| Born | 30 August 2001 Northampton, England |
| Height | 1.22 m (4 ft) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
| Strokes | Butterfly, Freestyle |
| Club | Northampton Swimming Club |
| Coach | Andy Sharp (club) |
Medal record | |
In 2016, Robinson won four medals at the 2016 IPC Swimming European Championships. She followed this success at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, where she won the gold medal in the women's S6 50m butterfly event and bronze in the women's S6 100m freestyle event. She became known for her "gangsta swagger" as she entered the pool in her oversized coat with its hood up.[4]
On 14 December 2016, it was announced that she had won the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.[5]
Robinson was recognised in the 2017 New Year Honours, being appointed Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to swimming.[6]
Having competed at the delayed 2020 Paralympics, Robinson announced her retirement from competitive swimming in October 2021.[1]
Personal life
editRobinson was born in 2001 with a rare type of dwarfism cartilage hair hypoplasia and lives in Northampton, England, where she was formerly a pupil of Northampton High School.[3][7] In November 2012 she was diagnosed with Perthes hip disease which requires her to undergo daily physiotherapy.[3]
Swimming career
editRobinson learned to swim at the age of four, and joined Northampton Swimming Club in 2012.[3] She stopped training after 2 months (having been diagnosed with Perthes disease), but returned to the pool in 2014. In 2014 Robinson was enrolled into the British Swimming's World Class Podium Potential Programme.[3]
She made her senior international debut for Great Britain at the 2015 International Deutsche Meisterschaften in Berlin.[8] At the tournament she set a world record in the 100m butterfly, with a time of 1:26.30.[8] She followed this with a silver in the 50m butterfly, in which she improved on her own British record, and a bronze in the 200m butterfly.[8]
In 2016, in the build up to the Summer Paralympics in Rio, Robinson again improved upon her British 50m butterfly record, finishing in 36.34 and taking the gold medal. This was also under the time for consideration for Paralympic qualification.[9] She followed this with her first major international tournament, representing Great Britain at the 2016 IPC Swimming European Championships in Funchal. There Robinson entered five events, winning medals in four of them. In the 200m Individual Medley (SM6) she finished fourth, but took bronze medals in the 50m, 100m and 400m freestyle events. In the 50m butterfly she was beaten into second place by the then Paralympic champion, Oksana Khrul of Ukraine. Khrul, who set the then 50m world record of 36.05 at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, improved her time with a result of 35.48. Robinson's silver medal time was 35.66, also under the 2012 World record.[10]
Robinson won the gold medal in the women's S6 50m butterfly event at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, in a new Paralympics record time of 35.58 seconds, beating 2012 champion Oksana Khrul into second place.[11][12] She also won a bronze in the 100m equivalent at the same Games.
Robinson won the gold medal in the women's S7 50m butterfly event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, beating Canadian Sarah Mehainl into second place.[13]
At the 2018 World Para Swimming European Championships in Dublin, Robinson won the women's S6 50m butterfly gold, ahead of Ireland's Nicole Turner and Ukraine's Oksana Khrul.[14]
References
edit- ^ a b "Ellie Robinson: Paralympic champion announces retirement from swimming at the age of 20". Sky Sports.
- ^ "Ellie Robinson". ParalympicsGB. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
- ^ a b c d e "Robinson Eleanor". IPC. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
- ^ Mendick, Robert (10 September 2016). "A tale of two Ellies: how Ellie Robinson, 15, struck gold after watching her idol Ellie Simmonds swim at London 2012". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
- ^ "BBC Young Sports Personality: Swimmer Ellie Robinson wins award". BBC Sport. 14 December 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
- ^ "No. 61803". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2016. p. N22.
- ^ "Biography Overview: Robinson, Eleanor". Paralympic Movement. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
- ^ a b c "Para-swimmer from Northampton breaks world record in debut international event". Northampton Chronicle & Echo. 28 April 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
- ^ "Robinson breaks British record". British Swimming. 25 April 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
- ^ "Women's 50m Butterfly S6" (PDF). IPC. 7 May 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
- ^ "Swimming at the London 2016 Paralympic Games, Women's 50 m Butterfly S6". paralympic.org. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
- ^ Lofthouse, Amy (10 September 2016). "Rio Paralympics 2016: Great Britain win seven gold medals on day two". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
- ^ "Hamer and Robinson win para-swimming Commonwealth golds". swimming.org. 5 April 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
- ^ "Results - Women's 50m Butterfly S6 Final". Paralympic.org. 18 August 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
External links
edit- Ellie Robinson at British Swimming (archived)
- Ellie Robinson at ParalympicsGB
- Eleanor Robinson at the International Paralympic Committee
- Eleanor Robinson at IPC.InfostradaSports.com (archived)
- Eleanor Robinson at Team England
- Eleanor Robinson at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (archived)