By Jo Gunston
Picture by Adam Pretty/Getty Images
Jude Bellingham and Sky Brown. Those were the other two names shortlisted alongside British Para swimmer, Ellie Challis, for the 2021 BBC Young Sports Personality award.
That'll be Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham who is now considered one of the best footballers in the world, and skateboarding phenom, Sky Brown, the winner of the prestigious award on the night, who now has two Olympic bronze medals and a world title to her name.
So, illustrious company, but Challis' achievements certainly match the celebrity pair.
Up to the awards, the then 17-year-old had won Paralympic silver, just two years after making her international debut when she won world bronze. Post awards, Challis has three world titles, five silvers, and an additional bronze in her favoured sprint distances to her name.
All of these are great accomplishments in themselves, but Challis' accomplishments come from the starting point of being a quadruple amputee.
After contracting meningitis at 16 months old, Challis had her legs removed above the knee and arms below the elbow to save her life after her heart stopped twice. She was given just a five per cent chance of survival.
Taking up swimming was a way to feel safe in the water on family holidays, but it took some time.
"It took a lot of years for me to feel confident in the water let alone (dad) feeling confident leaving me in the water," Challis said in an interview eight months before competing at Paris 2024.
But it was when Challis watched the movie, Dolphin Tale, that things really clicked.
The youngster watched enraptured as Winter the dolphin learned to swim again using a prosthetic having had her injured tail removed to save her life.
There were clear parallels, then, and the movie was hugely impactful for the seven-year-old, who even then named her pet rabbit, Winter.
"I was learning to swim at the time, so that was one of the things that made everything seem possible," she said ahead of the Games. "We watched it and thought it was a fictional story, then it said at the end it was true. We just knew we had to go to America to meet Winter. I have gone a few times, and we still have a great connection with the aquarium in Florida."
The family first travelled to the US to meet Winter in 2013, the year after another inspirational moment that impacted Challis greatly, the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
Inspired and inspiring, Ellie Challis is making waves
Eight-year-old Challis was watching London 2012, when she came across Ellie Simmonds, a four-time medal winner at her home Games.
"It was the first time I’d seen her swim on TV," Challis says of Simmonds, the athlete who has achondroplasia, or dwarfism, and who made her Paralympic debut at Beijing 2008 aged 13, winning double gold. "Ellie has been a big inspiration for pretty much every Para swimmer around the world. Without her in 2012, I don’t think para swimming would be as big as it is now."
Yet there wasn't anyone in Challis' classification competing, something the young swimmer was acutely aware of.
"At London 2012, I didn't see people like me swim. I remember the swimming, I remember watching Ellie Simmonds, and Ellie Robinson, but you didn't see my classification," said Challis.
Alongside her personal ambitions in the pool, visibility of quadruple amputees became important to the Essex-born athlete, who first came across a swimmer with the same impairments at a charity event.
LimbPower, a charity now close to Challis' heart, which she attends every year, engages amputees and individuals with limb impairments in physical activity, sport, and the arts.
"I saw a girl there swim that had the same impairments as me and it was just after that it kind of like all clicked," said Challis. "But I was very lucky in where I lived as I was approached by a disability swim club, which after moving to Manchester now I've realised there's nothing anywhere, so I was very lucky to have Colchester Phoenix really support me."
Also a talented snowboarder, Challis moved to Manchester aged 16 to train at the British Swimming Performance Centre, which offered better facilities for the now world-class athlete. Making sure to lead a balanced life, Challis also qualified as a baker after studying patisserie and confectionery while training full-time.
This expertise enables the now 20-year-old to add her qualified opinion about the famed chocolate muffins available at the Paralympic Village in Paris.
Asked by a Channel 4 TV presenter following the heat of the women's 50m backstroke S3 on the morning of 2 September about her thoughts on said muffins, Challis grinned and revealed: "I can report that the chocolate muffins lived up to the hype."
Sounds like someone else we know.
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