Swimmer Ellie Robinson's very different life 2 years after retiring from sport
Paralympic hero Ellie Robinson says she is the ‘happiest she’s ever been’ two years after retiring from sport and launching a new and unexpected career.
At the age of 21, Ellie now lists children’s author among her wealth of accomplishments. She is currently midway through her first trilogy of novels for young adults, finding a passion she never knew she had after waving goodbye to competitive sport in 2021.
Ellie is also supporting the Summer Reading Challenge this year, which aims to prevent the reading ‘dip’ that many young people experience during their summer holidays while schools are closed.
It has been a whirlwind few years for Ellie.
At the age of 13 she set the world record and the Paralympic record in the S6 50m butterfly and the world record in the 100m.
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She picked up gold and bronze medals at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, was crowned BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year and made an MBE a year later.
However, Ellie might be best recongised for her jaw-droppingly honest post-race speech after competing in the delayed Tokyo Paralympics.
After finishing in fifth place in the women’s S6 50m butterfly, a defiant Ellie told reporters: “I thought I’d be more upset than this.”
In her interview, which went on to become a viral sensation, Ellie revealed she’d been secretly battling Perthes’ disease, a condition affecting the hip joint which can cause agonising pain.
“I’ve been at a really low point of my life, I’ve seen a psychiatrist, I’ve taken medication. But I said 'I’m not finishing this way'. So even though I didn’t win a medal I went out on my own terms. I’m just so proud of myself for getting so far. This is a story of triumph not of defeat. These are happy tears, because I’m so relieved and so proud," declared Ellie, leaving her interviewer in tears as well.
Shortly after the Games, Ellie announced her retirement from competitive sport at the age of just 21.
Behind the scenes, as well as battling through injury, Ellie had also been mentally torturing herself in training, admitting she’d been ‘tearing herself apart’ every time she headed to the swimming pool to practice.
It was during the Covid pandemic that Ellie was able to unshackle from her intense training goals and unexpectedly rekindled a childhood passion.
Ellie Robinson's interview after finishing 5th at the Tokyo Paralympics became an inspiring phenomenonAs the world went into lockdown and swimming pools across the country closed their doors, Ellie put pen to paper and started writing for the first time since her school days.
The athlete ended up writing more than 40,000 words as the weeks went by to occupy her mind that had been consumed with ‘statistics, timings and training’ for years of her life - something she admits had become a burden.
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“Lockdown was one of the first times in my life when I felt genuinely happy,” says Ellie. “It was such a paradox - the world was in crisis, everything was going wrong. It was a miserable time for so many people but it was also the happiest I’ve ever been. And it was because I was writing and I’d found something I truly enjoyed.
“There was this tranquility and bliss within me even though the outside world was so chaotic.”
After the drama of Tokyo, Ellie was approached by a literary agent and asked if she'd be interested in writing a novel for young adults.
Ellie launches the 2023 Summer Reading Challenge at the Tottenham Hotspur training ground alongside Club Ambassador Ledley King (Tottenham Hotspur/Shutterstock)“A lot of sports stars suffer a huge crisis in identity when they retire because their whole adolescence has been dedicated to sport," says Ellie.
"Once you retire you question, ‘Who am I now? How do I introduce myself? I’m not ‘Ellie the swimmer’ anymore.’”
But Ellie was able to embrace her latest challenge in life with renewed vigour, as she delved into the world of childrens books.
Her first novel, Gold Medal Mysteries: A Thief on the Track - which follows three detectives racing round the world in a brand new adventure series - was released in April this year with two further novels already in the pipeline.
“I wanted to find a way to incorporate sport because it’s taught me so much and it will forever be a part of me even if I’m not participating in it.
“The lessons it taught me will be ingrained in me for such a long time so to find a way to write about a sporting mystery has been very apt and so fulfilling," says the star.
Ellie’s experience in both writing and sports makes her the ideal candidate to represent the 2023 Summer Reading Challenge, which this year is themed around games, sports and play.
The partnership between The Reading Agency and the Youth Sport Trust aims to keep children’s minds and bodies active throughout the summer holidays, encouraging young people to forge new connections with others and unleash the power of play, sport and physical activity through reading.
This year, the Challenge - which is also supported by famous faces including comedian Rosie Jones and former Love Island contestant and UK Ambassador for Mental Health Dr Alex George and powered by Nike and Rebel Girls - officially begins in Scotland on 24 June and England and Wales on 8 July.
The Summer Reading Challenge has been running since 1999 and helps to prevent the summer reading ‘dip’ that many young people experience during their summer holidays while schools are closed. With the help of local libraries, the Summer Reading Challenge is accessible to all and provides a fun, free activity for children.
Discussing her involvement with the campaign at the launch at Tottenham Hotspur’s state of the art training ground, Ellie said: “I know first hand how integral sport is not just for doing well and achieving but also because it can shape your behaviour and who you are and really help you react to certain situations.
“I wasn’t a massive reader as a child, very often you are boxed into the creative side or you do sport. While I was training there wasn’t scope to be creative or for self-expression, particularly in a sport that’s judged by numerical data like a time in swimming. However through nurturing this new side of myself I’ve seen that you can have self-expression and ambitious edge at the same time. Sport and books are two fields that don’t often get pushed together often... but when they do incredible things can happen."
As well as supporting this year's campaign, Ellie is also currently studying for a degree in History alongside her broadcasting career which has already seen her travel to the Beijing Paralympic Winter Games as a pundit with Channel 4.
She is still involved in the swimming world and regularly visits schools to inspire children around overcoming adversity.
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