PARALYMPIC WORLD CUP
Venue: Manchester Dates: 20-25 May Coverage: Listen on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra 1415-1615 BST on Friday; Watch live swimming plus highlights from elsewhere on BBC Two, 1500-1715 BST, Monday 25 May; Daily reports on the BBC Sport website

By Elizabeth Hudson BBC Sport at the Paralympic World Cup

A year ago Eleanor Simmonds was celebrating her selection on the Great Britain swimming team for the Beijing Paralympics, dreaming of future success and combining her training with her school work in Swansea.

Now, thanks to her double gold medal success in Beijing, the 14-year-old is the hottest property in British disability sport as she prepares for this weekend's BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

She won the hearts of a nation with her hard-fought victory in the S6 100m freestyle final and the combination of tears of joy and outright shock in her post-race interview with the BBC propelled her to stardom.

Her performances in Beijing showed how much she has progressed over the last year or so British Swimming performance director Tim Reddish

The win saw Simmonds become Britain's youngest ever individual Paralympic gold medallist at 13 years old and when she followed that up with another victory in the 400m freestyle, her life would never be the same again.

Her achievements were recognised with an MBE in the New Year's Honours list (making her the youngest ever person to be honoured), and the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

Despite the many plaudits that have gone her way, Simmonds remains an ordinary teenager with an extraordinary talent for swimming, a love for shopping and handbags and ambitions to be a forensic scientist.

Born with achondroplastia - or dwarfism - Simmonds began her career at Boldmere Swimming Club in Sutton Coldfield and it soon became evident that she had a special talent.

The absence of 50m pools near her home led to 12-year-old Ellie and her mother Val moving from Walsall in 2007 to train in Swansea under the guidance of coach Billy Pye, while father Steve remained at the family home.

It allowed Simmonds to join a training group which also includes 11-time Paralympic gold medallist Dave Roberts and a host of other Paralympians.

It was a big decision for the family to make but British Swimming performance director Tim Reddish knows that their help has been crucial in the teenager's progression.

"She has had fantastic support from her family," he told BBC Sport.

"She wants to do well in her sport and she also wants to do well in education and is determined to be the best she can be.

"Her performances in Beijing showed how much she has progressed over the last year or so, and justifies the commitment her family made to allow her to train in Swansea.

"Ellie is strong-minded and knows what she wants and when you see her racing you wouldn't want to bet against her with five metres to go when it is head-to-head."

Coach Pye has the job of keeping Simmonds's feet on the ground on a daily basis but he insists that success has not changed the teenager.

"She is a pleasure to teach and is still the same girl she was before Beijing," he explained.

She is a big fan of handbags and when she got a Louis Vuitton bag after Beijing, she was over the moon with that Training partner Liz Johnson

"Bringing up a daughter myself, I know the teenage years can be a difficult time when boys come into the equation

"But Ellie is fully focussed on the job in hand, although having won two golds at her first Games, we will have to go to different lengths to motivate her to the next stage, but she is just another member of the team."

Team-mate and training partner Liz Johnson, who herself won gold in Beijing, has witnessed Simmons at close quarters since she joined the Swansea training group.

"In a race she is a fierce competitor but out of the water she is like any other 14-year-old," Johnson revealed.

"She has days when she is hyperactive and days when she isn't in a good mood but she is very enthusiastic and bubbly and fitted into our training group straight away.

"I was sharing a room with her and Rhiannon Henry during last weekend's British International Championships in Sheffield and between sessions I was helping Ellie with her maths revision.

"Rhiannon and I both made our qualifying times for the European Championships in the morning session but Ellie didn't so we joked with her that she couldn't sit with us.

"When she made her qualifying times in the afternoon session she was delighted and came up to me and said that she could sit with us now.

"I'd also like to think I've passed my love of shopping onto her. She is a big fan of handbags and when she got a Louis Vuitton bag after Beijing, she was over the moon."

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As well as the Paralympic World Cup and the European Championships in October, Simmonds will also have the World Short-Course Championships in Rio de Janeiro to look forward to later in the year.

And London 2012 is also looming on the horizon.

But Reddish knows that despite her successes so far in the pool, Simmonds will not be able to rest on her laurels.

"There is a new American on the scene who has gone faster than Ellie this year but that will make her more determined to beat her when they do meet," he added.

"I'm looking forward to her challenging her coach more in the future as she learns more about her sport.

"She has got where she is by being who she is and I believe she can cope with the pressures."

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