Ellie Simmonds honoured to represent disability on the new Strictly

Strictly: Paralympian Ellie Simmonds on dancing with dwarfism

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

Having retired from competitive swimming, Ellie Simmonds is taking on another physical challenge – dancing on Strictly Come Dancing. The 27-year-old shot to fame when she won her first Paralympic medal at the age of 13 at the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008. Awarded an MBE at the young age of 14, Simmonds became a five-time Paralympic gold medallist.

Simmonds was born with achondroplasia, the most common cause of dwarfism, and now she will be the first UK contestant of Strictly Come Dancing who has the condition.

“Disability representation is so important on a show like this [Strictly Come Dancing], and I’m honoured to do it for the dwarfism community,” she said.

“Especially something like dancing, which is something that I’ve never, ever done before.

“So hopefully people who are sitting at home and watching realise that anyone can do it.”

Simmonds added: “Dancing with a person of shorter stature is obviously new for the professionals too.

“And then I’m completely new at dancing, so it’s about seeing how we’ll see how we can adapt it and learning for me and my partner – it’s like where do you put your hands and things like that.”

She confessed dancing is “completely different to swimming training”.

Although Simmonds was a professional athlete, training for Strictly has caused her to use muscles she’s “never used before”.

“I’m aching already,” she admitted. “Swimming is in the water but dancing is very high impact.”

Achondroplasia

Experts at the Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Centre explained: “Achondroplasia is a disorder of bone growth.”

Characterised by dwarfism, there tends to be “limited range of motion at the elbows”, small fingers, and normal intelligence.

“Achondroplasia can cause health complications such as interruption of breathing (apnea), obesity, [and] recurrent ear infections.”

The condition is caused by genetic changes in the FGFR3 gene, and symptoms typically emerge within the first month of life.

Little People UK noted that achondroplasia affects one person in up to 40,000 people.

Achondroplasia can be diagnosed before birth via an ultrasound and, after birth, the condition is marked by short stature.

For some people who have the condition, they might have “mid-facial retrusion and [a] depressed nasal bridge”.

Simmonds will star in the latest season of Strictly alongside Loose Women star Kaye Adams and Coronation Street’s Kym Marsh.

Other contestants include: Helen Skelton, Fluer East, Matt Goss, and Tony Adams.

Strictly Come Dancing launched on Friday, September 23, and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

More Strictly airs on Saturday, September 24, with the first of the live shows kicking off at 6.45pm and ending at 9.10pm on BBC One.

Source: Read Full Article