Brought to you by innocent drinks.
Ellen Keane is not your average 22-year-old.
By all means, she seems it. Ellen is bubbly, friendly, likes hanging out with her friends and enjoys baking.
But what you might not realise the first time that you meet her is that she has done more in her 22 years than most of us could hope to achieve in a lifetime.
The Dublin native started swimming when she was only 2 years old. Fast forward 20 years and she has competed in not one, not two, but three Paralympic games and motivated millions with her story.
Her journey is truly amazing but she didn’t reach this point without a few bumps in the road.
Growing up as the ‘girl with one arm’, as she puts it, was not easy. When she was younger, Ellen would wear baggy hoodies and coats to try and hide her stump and pretend that she was just like everyone else.
”In Ireland, all people think of when they hear ‘disability’ is someone in a wheelchair or someone who is blind or deaf. They don’t realise that it is out there so when they actually see it they stare.”
”It’s so uncomfortable, especially when you are a young kid or a teenage girl and people are looking at you with a sort of look of disgust. You kind of start to think ‘I am not normal’ and that’s heartbreaking.”
Thankfully, swimming offered Ellen a way to express herself and gave her the opportunity to become comfortable in her own skin.
”It’s so important for anyone to be involved in sport, but especially kids. When you’re growing up, you can be so insecure about your body but when you are competing in a sport, you don’t really have time for any of that.”
It didn’t take long for people to realise that she had a natural talent. While most of her classmates were just getting to grips with starting secondary school, 13-year-old Ellen jetted off to Beijing for her first Paralympics.
”I don’t think I appreciated it at the time. Once Beijing had happened, I kind of struggled for a time to find a competition that motivated me enough. Any competition I went to I kind of thought ‘what’s the point?”’
Her next Paralympics in London in 2012 was a complete turning point. Ellen realised that she could not get by on her talent alone. She needed to pull up her socks and get serious about her training which is exactly what she did. After enlisting the help of coach David Malone, she trained hard and thankfully it paid off as she won bronze in Rio in 2016. But for Ellen, the sport is about so much more than winning prizes.
”I love swimming so much. For me, the best feeling in the world is swimming fast. It has never been about medals for me, it has always been about being the best I can be.”
Since then, Ellen has started a culinary degree, given a TED Talk and most recently she has been named as a brand ambassador for innocent drinks, something which she is immensely proud of.
”When they came to me I was just in awe. Usually those big companies just go to celebs but they actually saw a normal person trying to do something good for their country and decided to highlight that.”
Throughout her career, Ellen has had lots of setbacks and plenty of success, she’s challenged people’s perceptions and showed her immense strength again and again. Going forward she plans to continue to share her story with the world in the hope that it will help someone.
”I kind of felt like I had a responsibility to tell my story and say listen, it’s okay to be different but if you’re brave about it then you will be able to live such a better life.”
This article is brought to you by innocent drinks.
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