Ellard for instance, is an 18-year-old from Beccles but he only began competitive swimming two years ago, yet he poses a real challenge.
He won three world medals last year in his first international competition in Manchester and demonstrated no signs of being overwhelmed by the occasion when he won S14 100m butterfly silver in front of a packed audience in La Defense Arena.
And his best event—he’s a joint world record holder over double the distance—is still to come this weekend.
Ellard scraped home in 50m ahead of his opponents but Denmark’s Alexander Hillhouse got the same, coming to a stop at 54. 61 second Paralympic record. Ellard came in just fractions behind in 54.86 secs.
Ellard stated that she could not believe that she would be happy with the silver medal but she is a good friend with Alexander and this makes her happy.
There are huge numbers of over 1000 elite athletes who have been provided with the opportunity to train full time, access to coaches across the world and medical facilities, which are very vital as they prepare for the Paris 2024 Games.
In the last quarter of the last lap, all I was thinking was, ‘I feel I am starting to get tired here but he is coming for me and he is very strong in the last bit of the race.
But in fact, I still have my major event, the 200-meter freestyle, which should have big confidence added to it from here.