Retired para swimming great Ellie Simmonds’ four-medal haul at her home Paralympics in 2012 cemented her status as one of Great Britain’s top para swimmers, while Daniel Dias became Brazil’s most decorated Paralympian when he clinched four gold, three silver and two bronze medals in front of an adoring home crowd at the Rio Paralympics four years later.
But beyond national pride and accolades, their feats in the pool inspired a whole new generation of world-class para swimmers, with Brazil’s “rocketman” Gabriel Araujo rising to international stardom after a captivating triple-gold performance at last year’s Paris Paralympics.
“When Rio 2016 happened, I was in my second year as an athlete, and it was a really important point in my development. Daniel Dias was always a big reference point for me, and when I saw him winning in Rio, I told myself that I wanted to feel the same,” said Araujo, who has phocomelia, which results in him having atrophied legs and no arms.
Known fondly as the “Pelé of the Pools”, the S2 swimmer has dominated at both the Paralympics and the World Championships since he burst onto the scene in Tokyo in 2020 with two golds and a silver on his debut at the age of 18.
“It is important for me to share my experience, now, with others so they can also feel that they can be here too. My biggest dream is that when I retire, you will watch para swimming and see many stories like that all over the world.”
For Great Britain’s Alice Tai, who was born with bilateral talipes (clubfoot), being in the spectator stands of the 2012 London Olympics was also the catalyst to a glittering career in a sport where she has amassed seven Paralympic medals.
“London 2012 really consolidated the fact that I wanted to pursue swimming as a career. (Back then), I had never really seen any para sport on such a massive scale, so I was really lucky I got tickets through ParalympicsGB and I was able to watch. I remember watching Ellie Simmonds in her 400m freestyle S6 final and it was really tight between the top two athletes in her classification and I’ve never been in an arena where the crowd was going so crazy,” Tai said, referring to the race where Simmonds broke the world record to take gold ahead of her closest competitor, Victoria Arlens of the United States, by just a second.
“The woman in front of me was crying. She didn’t even know Ellie. She was just crying and screaming, and that atmosphere really just encouraged me. I wanted to be in the pool, eliciting those emotions from the people watching,” Tai added.
The 26-year-old did just that seven years later at the 2019 World Championships in London, where she snagged six golds on home soil.
Now, the pair will be looking to make waves once again at the World Para Swimming Championships 2025, which kicks off on Sunday (Sep 21), with hopes of inspiring future generations through their performances.
For local freestyle and butterfly specialist Toh Wei Soong, the world-class meet also represents a chance to shape and inspire Singapore’s current crop of swimmers and budding para athletes.
With five of Singapore’s nine-strong contingent making their debut on the global stage, Toh is especially heartened by what the experience can represent for them.
“It is really heartwarming because they’ve worked very hard for a long time, and now that they are entering this world-class competition, they are seeing what the atmosphere is like, and what it takes to be a competitor,” he said. “To be able to soak in the energy and experience of the moment, I think it’s wonderful.”
“For a lot of their parents or friends, this is the first time they’re seeing them at a world-class competition, much less one here with all the media coverage, so this is a very special moment. I would see it as a big stepping stone for many of the athletes who will become the next generation of Singapore para swimmers,” Toh added.
