Quotes from Ellie Simmonds

Tuna pasta bake is one of my favourites, its quick and easy to make when I'm busy training.

It's nice to hope to inspire people out there who maybe have a little less motivation or who are low in confidence or self-belief to go out there and achieve.

On a typical Monday I swim from six until 8am. I go from there to the gym and do a session from nine until half 10. I get home about 11ish. Take a nap and have lunch. Swim from half three to half five. I get home at half six. Have dinner.

Swimming outside the pool is scary. I don't like not knowing what's underneath me - it's quite dark in lakes. I swam in the sea in Australia around the Great Barrier Reef, though, and that was incredible because you could see exactly what was underneath you.

Sport is a great thing to get involved with, it's not just fitness but it also gets your competitive side out.

I didn't enjoy Rio. My team-mates were great but some of the staff made it a really negative place.

I jumped into my parents loft where I was actually able to go through all my cards, all the newspaper cuttings that my family collected, and it made me realise just how big London 2012 was - it was huge! That was a Games that I will never, ever forget and it was definitely my highlight.

It's really exciting to get the Paralympic sport out there and inspire the next generation - I remember watching the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games that inspired me to want to got to a Paralympic Games.

My philosophy is that there is no point in being sad or hating who you are.

I don't want to be stuck up. I'm just a normal person. My friends think of me as a normal friend, and I like that.

I love the ocean and I'm passionate about conservation and the environment.

I think people shouldn't think 'I'm not normal, I've got a disability.' Overcome that, go out there and enjoy your life and achieve something.

It's important to give kids a variety of sports. Everyone is an individual, everyone is different but there is a sport out there for everyone.

Four Games is incredible. Especially as an nine-year-old watching Athens 2004. To think as a kid then I would not just go to one Games but four.

Growing up, I was aware of being a dwarf but I felt I could do anything.

I can't do the whole going-out-all-night thing. I can't even stay up until 10 P. M., I just fall asleep. My friends know that we have to meet at an earlier time.

In China they don't mind getting their cameras out, but I try to go with the flow. In countries where there is not so much disability visible on the streets, they want to know who you are and what you are doing.