Brit Ellie Challis’s swimming gold a huge moment in a young life played out in the public eye, writes IAN HERBERT

Amid the performances we witness daily here, there is a complacency; a blindness, among many British medals, to the sheer scale of achievement in the face of incalculable odds. You overlook the journeys travelled.

And then 20-year-old Ellie Challis appears, paddling herself through the media/athlete mixed zone last night on a low trike which provided the mobility which she has lacked since losing her arms and legs at the age of 16 months.

The swimmer’s fourth-place finish in 100m freestyle didn’t tell the full story of her monumental second length, finding a perseverance and speed of stroke which would have taken her to bronze, given 20 metres more pool. 

But the finish was inconsequential, given the gold she won 24 hours earlier – her Paralympic first – which was a huge moment in a young life played out in the public eye.

She was photographed at the age of three for a fund-raising campaign to pay for her prosthetics to replace the limbs she lost when she contracted meningitis. 

She was photographed at the age of five with Oscar Pistorius, by this newspaper, as the youngest child to wear them. She was pictured, aged ten, for a story of how her twin, Sophie, had helped her to walk.

But in the last 24 hours, Challis has achieved on her own terms, winning the gold, in 50m backstroke, which she did not remotely contemplate when, 12 years ago today, her father took her to the athletics at London’s Paralympics.

She reflected last night on the ‘luck’ she has had. Luck to have ‘support around, from my dad to keep me going, getting me into sports and protecting me,’ she explained. ‘Luck that I’ve had loads of support from everyone.’

And luck to have had her twin. ‘Because I followed her through all the stages,’ Challis added. ‘When she played sports, I played sports. When she played netball, I played netball When she did football, I did football. And you know, I think it really helped me have as normal a childhood as possible. I just gave everything a go.’

‘Twelve years ago, I was just watching. Just a spectator. Now I’m here today. It’s just a bit incredible to fair.’

Her message for others with disabilities resonated through these Games last night, and made her one of GB’s shining lights, because not everyone can find the words, as she did.

‘Life’s not over with a disability or an illness,’ she said. ‘I think, just do what you love. Give it a go. I love watching sport and I love playing it. This isn’t something I thought, “I’m going to get into it and go to a Paralympics.” ‘

It started out at tiny little galas to being here at the Paralympic games.

‘A lot of the things you fail at the first time. Just try and try and try. You need that support around you to keep going.’

Challis wasn’t the only source of inspiration at the Paralympic pool last night. GB’s Faye Rogers, 21, powered to gold in the 100m freestyle, fending off compatriot Callie-Ann Warrington, three years ago to the week after losing her arm in car crash on the day she was to begin a new life at Aberdeen University. 

She’d been an Olympic trialist at the time. ‘I don’t think I’d have coped with the accident and my impairment without being able to swim,’ she said last night. ‘It’s honestly been a lifesaver for me.’

Challis wheeled herself off into a future she’d never envisaged. ‘I’m a full-time swimmer and we’re going to LA!’ she said. ‘I’ll be there hopefully.’