Ellie Simmonds has spent a lifetime being different. Her extraordinary gift for swimming was revealed to the nation for the first time in Beijing last summer, when her zest for life captured hearts.

Nearly eight months on, with an MBE to her name and a fame unthinkable a year ago, the 14-year-old returns to the water for the first time in major competition at the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester. As with the Paralympics, the World Cup, staged over six days at three venues from Wednesday, is as much a celebration of passion as a roll-call of winners and losers. Nobody epitomises the spirit of Paralympic sport more vigorously than the youngest British gold medallist.

“Ellie thinks she’s 6ft tall,” says her mother, Valerie. To prove the point, Ellie once auditioned for the part of the giant in her school play and, for all the misgivings of a few teachers, got the role. On the opening night, she brought the house down. “That’s Ellie,” says Valerie. “She’s never thought of herself as being different.”

Simmonds is chirpy and bright, a little overawed at the speed with which the world has turned since her double gold at the Paralympics but delighted at her good fortune.

One of her mother’s tasks each morning is to sift the mail for Simmonds to read when she comes home from school. If an address is included, every letter is answered, and if not always in the girl’s prose then certainly with her approval. “I’ve had letters from children, from older people, all age ranges,” she says. “One girl asked me to go to her school in the countryside to see her, which is really hard because I’ve got to go to school myself. I love it when people say I’ve inspired them because I was inspired myself by Nyree Lewis winning her gold in Athens. She’s the same category as me, so I asked my mum how good you had to be to do that and from there I just went for it.”

That sounds easy but it wasn’t, at least not for Valerie, who, with her husband, Steve, has had to find the right balance between shepherding her youngest daughter through her early life and letting a tough old world take its course. The biscuit tin is an example. It’s on the top shelf. If Ellie or her elder sister, both of whom were born with achondroplasia, or dwarfism, wanted a biscuit they had to climb up and get it.

At the school swimming gala, Ellie always wanted to join in and so her parents had to watch the inevitable agony unfold. “She was swimming against able-bodied kids so was always at the back of it,” Valerie says. “We got used to seeing her lose. But it toughened her up. The whole family are determined characters and as Ellie was the youngest she had to get involved with the rough and tumble. Being small was never a big issue.”

Simmonds learnt to swim on the steps of the pool at her local baths in Walsall. When she was ready, she took her first hesitant strokes in the shallow end. Touching the bottom was not an option but she didn’t like getting her face wet or swimming on her back. Not until she started to compete against other disabled swimmers did her parents realise how good she was. At a meeting in Sheffield, her times easily qualified her for the national development squad. She was 12 when she went to a training camp in South Africa.

“I remember thinking, ‘You can’t take her away, she’s my baby’,” says Valerie. “She came back with some GB kit, a costume, a couple of towels and a rucksack and she thought she was the bee’s knees. She used that rucksack until it fell to bits.”

Her talent for swimming has demanded a fundamental shift in the family’s way of life. Last year, she and her parents moved from their home in the West Midlands to Swansea to take advantage of the world-class coaching and facilities.

“It was very hard to settle in at the start,” says Simmonds. “I can remember being so nervous going to school on my first day, but I’ve made some good friends and now I’ve got two sets of friends, my ones in Walsall and my friends here. I did it for my swimming and to be the best I can be. What might have happened if I hadn’t made the move? That’s the way I look at it. I might not have gone to Beijing.”

Sometimes during a routine training session, she catches herself wondering what’s for dinner or what’s happening in EastEnders when she should be concentrating on her technique, on the little improvements in her swimming that will take her forward to London 2012. Mostly, however, her motivation and concentration are utterly, almost disarmingly, professional. “I’m only 14, so I’ve got a lot to improve,” she says. “Starts and turns, all the little skills. The world is moving on so we’ve all got to step up a gear, but I’ve got good support staff, good funding from the National Lottery. The rest is up to me really.”

Celebrity life has certainly had its advantages. “I’ve done so many things I couldn’t have dreamt of,” she says. “Going to the Palace to receive my MBE, meeting Lewis Hamilton.” She was even invited to turn on the Christmas lights in Walsall. “But I’m still just a normal teenager. I’m no different from a year ago.”

The National Lottery is contributing up to £2.2 billion to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London

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