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Swimmer Ellie Robinson, from Northampton in the United Kingdom, won gold today at the Women’s 50m butterfly event.
She has been swimming since she was four years old. Now 15, the young teenager has been struggling all her life with Perthes Hip Disease, which causes a seriously impaired flow of blood to the femur. Those afflicted by the childhood condition are caused serious pain in the legs and hips, which makes it even more impressive that the teenager is swimming at all.
Robinson is said to require hours of physiotherapy on a daily basis, and initially, it had not been planned for her to go to Rio 2016, instead focussing on potential participation at Tokyo 2020. But the high-school student made such quick progress in her match that she was selected for the country’s squad at this Olympic Games instead.
Although she is only 15, Robinson has been swimming for eleven years now. She was born with a form of dwarfism, which impairs movement and is not optimal for sporting performance. Despite this, the teenager, participating in her first ever Olympic Games, not only placed top in the heats of the S6 women’s butterfly 50m event, but went on to win the gold medal there.
But she did not stop there. Robinson’s time of 35.58 seconds broke the standing world record.
In heartwarming scenes, Robinson’s schoolmates watched her match back home, cheering the young swimming talent on from the school premises.
Robinson took a two-year break for medical reasons in 2012, in what could perhaps be considered the formative years of a professional athlete’s career, and initially was being considered only for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, four years from now. But she made such quick progress with her times over the period that she had begun serious Olympic training, that Robinson was in serious contention for a spot on Great Britain’s Paralympics team in Rio 2016.
She qualified for the Rio Paralympics at a meet in Glasgow, Scotland earlier this year in April, where she beat the Rio qualification standard.
Incredulous about her own win, Robinson told reporters
Winning gold on Olympic debut is brilliant. To do it at 15 years old is even better. To do it all as one fights serious physical limitations and constant pains to overcome the odds is nothing short of inspirational.
