I won 5 golds but man at my pool told me to use slow lane, Ellie Simmonds tells Sun’s International Women’s Day panel

AS a top female athlete, former Olympic swimming star Ellie Simmonds has faced her fair share of naysayers.

But to mark International Women’s Day on Friday, she is urging teenage girls to ignore their critics and instead use any put-downs to fight harder to achieve their dreams.

Despite having won four gold medals, a man at Ellie Simmonds’ local pool told her to use the slow laneArfa

Our panel of Lianne Sanderson, former Lioness, Ellie Simmonds, Olympic swimming champ, Gladiator Diamond, Layla Guscoth, England netball star and scientist Stephanie Hilborne, talked about their experiences in sportLouis Wood

Determined Ellie was just 13 when she competed in the 2008 OlympicsLouis Wood

Ellie, 28, revealed that, despite winning four Olympic gold medals, she was recently patronised by two men at her local swimming pool for using the fast lane.

Addressing a panel at The Sun’s HQ in London on Wednesday, Ellie who retired in 2021, said: “When I swim now it’s in public sessions and I try to go in the fast lane to keep my speed up.

“There were two men in the lane and all the others were packed, so I decided to go in that lane and they spread themselves out.

“I asked to join and they asked if I wanted to go in the other (slower) lane.”

Ellie said she refused, adding: “Throughout the swim I thought, ‘I’m going to swim as fast as I can’ to show them. And it turns out they were really slow.

“I wanted to prove that even though I’m a girl and I have dwarfism, I can swim as fast as other people.

“Days like this are important for making those (points).”

Five guests, including ex-England and Arsenal idol Lianne Sanderson, 36, discussed their experiences in women’s sport at our IWD event.

‘Be confident, do you’

Determined Ellie was just 13 when she competed in the 2008 Olympics — the youngest member of the Great Britain swim team — and incredibly won two golds.

But a year or two earlier, she had been swimming with children several years her junior.

“I swam at a non-disabled swimming club,” she said.

“As I was getting older, the difference between myself and my non-disabled peers was getting greater.

“I got left in the junior group because I couldn’t swim as fast as my age.

“I was so upset.

“I hated my coach at the time as she left me with the eight to nine- year-olds and I was 12.

“It was so embarrassing.

“Seeing my peers achieve things I couldn’t while I was left with the kids was really tough.

“But when I looked back I realised it made me stronger, it made me train harder because I wanted to be with my friends and my peers.

“Eventually I swam stronger and I worked harder and I got selected to go up to the next level.

“It made me the athlete that I am today.”

Over 100 state school teenage girls, aged between 12 and 15, attended the event to hear from some of their greatest sporting heroes.

Lianne Sanderson led the talk, recalling her passion for football since childhood.

But she said there were no female role models in the Nineties, unlike now when girls look up to the Euro-winning Lionesses.

The TalkSport Women’s Football Show host said of sporting heroe: “Mine was David Beckham.

“When I was growing up there just weren’t women in sport to look up to.

“When I said I wanted to be a professional footballer, I had people laugh at me and say, ‘What are you talking about?’.

“Then I became the youngest ever professional footballer in England.

“I scored on my debut for Arsenal when I was 14.”

Lianne was also joined by England netball star and doctor Layla Guscoth; Diamond from TV’s Gladiators — aka Livi Sheldon — and chief exec of Women in Sport, Steph Hilborne.

 Steph said: “As a girl, netball was my sport.

“You couldn’t see it on telly. I wept last year when my grown-up daughter watched it on TV.”

The panel demonstrated how attitudes towards female sports are changing — but there is still more to be done.

Livi, 29, explained that she was teased as a child for being tall, but it pushed her into bodybuilding.

“It made me want to be strong and powerful,” she said.

The 6ft Gladiator admits she can still get intimidated at the gym, which sometimes feels like a man’s domain — particularly the weights zone.

And she reckons females can feel pressured to look a certain way with the latest fitness gear.

But she insists: “Wear what you want, be confident and do you.”

Layla Guscoth, a qualified doctor, plays goal defence for England and revealed she has faced racism in both careers.

As a medic, she has been asked “where is she really from?” and had patients refuse to be treated by her.

Meanwhile, in netball, she said the most racism came in countries with a different demographic to the UK.

“The worst was when I played in Australia,” she said.

“I had another black girl in my team and regularly people said incorrect things to us and we were mistaken for each other on the news.

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Lianne playing for England[/caption]

The former Arsenal and England star at The Sun’s International Women’s Day eventLouis Wood

Louis Wood

Schoolgirls quiz the panel at The Sun’s International Women’s Day event[/caption]

‘We’re all equal’

“People didn’t see anything wrong with it.

“I went into a supermarket pit there.

“My whole team were stopped so they could search my bag.”

Wednesday’s audience included girls from Graveney School, Wandsworth, south London; Greig’s City Academy, Haringey, north London; Royal Greenwich Trust School, south east London; Grays Convent High School, Grays, Essex; and Chobham Academy in Stratford, east London.

After the discussion, they praised our panel members for their inspirational words.

 Pupil Evun said: “Laila was my favourite speaker.

“Like me, she is black and I love playing netball.

“I’d love to take it to a professional level.

“It’s amazing to see someone like myself who has achieved so many great things.”

Classmate Sania added: “As a swimmer I look up to Ellie a lot so her advice is something I can really take on board.

“As a Muslim girl, swimming can be a challenge to have people staring at you, but hearing how Ellie overcame situations like that is amazing.”

And student Nicole said: “Lianne is a footballer like me.

“Everything she said about boys ­getting the advantage spoke to me.

“Women shouldn’t have to ­constantly prove that they’re worthy in the sporting world.”

Praising the message behind our successful IWD summit, Ellie said: “People should know we’re all equal and can all do what we want.

“I think events like this are really important because girls who are struggling can have people to look up to and relate to.”

STIGMA NEEDS TO END

Livi says being bullied at school was hard, but adds: ‘It toughened me up and it made me want to be strong and powerful, and look at me now’BBC

Livi also works as a personal trainer and spoke of how great it is to inspire and encourage other women and girlsLouis Wood

TV GLADIATOR Livi Sheldon revealed she has had the last laugh with her role as Diamond.

The 29-year-old – now 6ft tall and a professional bodybuilder – said: “School was hard. I was ­bullied all the way through because of my height.

“It toughened me up and it made me want to be strong and powerful, and look at me now.

“It is definitely something that moulded me.

“Would I have got into training had it not been for the bullying? Who knows.”

Livi also works as a personal trainer and spoke of how great it is to inspire and encourage other women and girls.

She said: “Diamond is the representation of a strong, powerful woman and being able to share that and inspire young girls of the next generation to be super strong and lift weights is a dream come true.”

Livi’s Instagram images flit between photos of her pumping iron in the gym and snaps of her glammed up for nights out.

She added: “There was always a stigma, and there still is when it comes to bodybuilding, around women being strong and having muscles. But it just shows you can be strong and powerful and still be feminine.”

GENDER BIAS BEGINS EARLY

Scientist Stephanie, 56, explained that even by the time children start school, boys are more likely to play sport than girlsLouis Wood

STEPHANIE HILBORNE is a scientist and has an OBE for services to nature conservation.

She has always had a passion for sport and has spoken out about the gender pay gap.

Stephanie, 56, explained that even by the time children start school, boys are more likely to play sport than girls.

Part of this, she said, is down to how children are raised – with boys encouraged to play rough and tumble and “trained” into playing sports, with girls being encouraged to “look neat” and “play nicely”. The result is boys think they “own the playground”.

She said: “We all know as girls growing up that boys can be pretty horrible to us at times, whether that’s in sport or on the playground.

“When it comes to sport, you get a sense that the boys feel they own it.

“We are brought up to think that sport is for men and they own it and actually what sport is all about is fun.

“So what we’re saying is men have fun, and we do the housework.

“We’re pushing back against that and saying we can have fun, let us do it our way.

“We have to shift this and stop stereo- typing.”

‘I STUDIED HARD TOO’

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Layla said: ‘We’re not footballers – we don’t earn millions – so for so many netballers we have to do something on the side anyway and I always wanted to be a doctor’[/caption]

Citing other challenges women in sport face, she told how menstrual cycles can affect performanceLouis Wood

LAYLA GUSCOTH, a qualified doctor who has played for the England netball team for 13 years, told how she balanced studying and sport.

Layla, 32, said: “We’re not footballers – we don’t earn millions – so for so many netballers we have to do something on the side anyway and I always wanted to be a doctor.”

“I remember my dad saying to me, ‘You can do this netball thing but you’re also going to do your academic thing.’

“I had lots of teachers and coaches telling me I couldn’t do both and I just thought, ‘You see so many people who do both – why can’t I?’ It’s been challenging at times but so worth it. If someone says you can’t do it, do it.”

And citing other challenges women in sport face, she told how menstrual cycles can affect performance.

Layla said: “At the Commonwealth Games a couple of years ago everybody went on their period.”

“We struggled to get tampons into the village because of security checks It’s a distraction you don’t really want.”