Excellent Ellie Challis takes Paralympic gold in dominant style

Ellie Challis upgraded her Tokyo silver to Paralympic gold in Paris with what she described as the ‘most incredible day ever.’

The Manchester Performance Centre athlete dominated the field in Paris, setting a new British record of 53.56 in the Women’s S3 50m Backstroke final.

Challis started strongly and never looked back, touching the wall almost five seconds ahead of silver medallist Zoia Schurova to take her first Paralympic title.

Speaking after the race Challis said that she was always confident but was delighted with her performance on her first day of competition at La Defense Arena.

She said: “I was very confident that I could do better than this morning and a PB was all that I could’ve asked for.

“Whether that got me first, second, third or wherever then that’s what it was but wow that was a good swim.

“Para sport is so different. We have people drop in and out of our classification all the time and you never quite know what the year is going to hold, you really don’t.

“I went to World Championships in 2019 and since then I’ve just gone up and up and up.

“This has been the most incredible day ever, I was so confident in myself but you know it’s a swimming race and anything can happen but wow that was fun.”

‘I really couldn’t have done this without them’

It’s been a long journey so far for Challis, who became Paralympics GB’s youngest medallist in Tokyo when she took silver.

Since then she’s took control of this event, becoming world and European champion in the past 12 months ahead of taking the Paralympic crown.

And looking back she took the time to thank her family and coach Aled Davies who has given her ‘so much confidence’ in her swimming.

“My family are just up there and I just want to say a big thank you to my dad, my sisters and my coach Aled (Davies) because I really couldn’t have done this without them.

“Since I started working with Aled two years ago I’ve been through so much. He gives me so much confidence in my swimming and I really couldn’t have done it without him at worlds last year and today.

“On 4 September 2012 I went and watched the para-athletics at London 2012 and 12 years later to become a Paralympic champion is just crazy.

“It’s just a dream come true, I can’t believe it’s happened. It doesn’t even feel real at the moment.

“Hopefully people can see this race and see what can be done after the illness (meningitis) because it’s such a horrible illness.

“But your life’s not over and amazing things can happen.”

Challis will be back in the pool on Tuesday where she takes part in the S3 100m Freestyle and is going to make sure she enjoys every moment from the rest of her time in Paris.

“Obviously I’ve still got one more day left so we’ll see what happens tomorrow but this is a full dream come true.

“Tomorrow’s just about taking it all in and making sure I’m enjoying every moment like I have today and what happens, happens.”