Dolphin film inspires amputee to become Paralympic swimmer

A Hollywood film about a dolphin who learns to swim again after being fitted with a prosthetic tail has inspired a British Paralympian without hands or legs to aim for gold.

Ellie Challis, who at 17 became Britain’s youngest Paralympic medallist in Tokyo in the women’s 50m backstroke S3, had to have all four limbs amputated after contracting meningitis as a baby.

At age three, she received her first pair of prosthetics and learned to swim at age eight.

Although she started out playing soccer and even dabbled in running, it was when she saw a 2011 film called Dolphin Tale as a child that inspired her to truly pursue a sport.

The film is based on the true story of Winter, a three-month-old bottlenose dolphin who learns to swim again after losing his tail in a crab trap. A sequel was made in 2014, titled Dolphin Tale 2.

“Winter lost her tail and had to relearn how to swim. I saw the movie and really wanted to take up swimming,” she said.

She had previously told the i newspaper: “I learned to swim very late compared to all my brothers and sisters, but we knew how important it was. It took a few years and it went from there. I started in a club, then I started competing and I really enjoyed it.”

Ms Challis, now 20, later visited Winter, who was named after she was found one frigid December morning at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Sadly, the dolphin died in November 2021, following an “intestinal abnormality,” the aquarium revealed.

Having decided to concentrate her efforts on swimming, she was just 13 when she broke her first British record.

She then set a new world record in the same 50-meter SB2 breaststroke event two years later.

“Anyway, I was going to enjoy it. I didn’t really have any particular expectations. I was mainly thinking about Paris, because I would be older and more experienced. To come away with a silver medal… well, I couldn’t believe it,” Challis said.

In 2021, at the World Championships in Madeira, Ms Challis won her first world title in the 50m breaststroke SB2 as well as three silver medals in the 50m freestyle S3, 100m freestyle and 50m backstroke.

Last year she won five more medals at the World Championships in Manchester and retained her SB2 50m breaststroke title.

Ms Challis is the only British swimmer in Paris who will compete in a classification below S5, which means a moderate disability, with S1 being the most severe disability.

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