I was in awe when I discovered that a young girl from our town in Kent is going to be competing at the Paralympic Games.  And when I say ‘young’, I mean 13 - amazing!

I was lucky enough to be able to ask Tonbridge Paralympic swimmer extraordinaire, Iona Winnifrith, her mum, Gillian, and her coach Michael Ellis, all about her swimming career and journey to her first Paralympic Games in Paris.  Here’s the story so far.

Iona has a form of skeletal dysplasia which causes short statue due to short limbs but this hasn’t stopped her being active from a young age.  At six months old, Iona’s parents started taking her to parent and baby swimming groups.  She would watch her three older brothers have swimming lessons and try to crawl into the pool, eventually having lessons of her own as a toddler and pre-schooler.

Her three brothers started swimming at Tonbridge Swimming Club (TSC) and Iona became a bit fed up with just sitting and watching.  TSC had just started a Learn to Swim programme for five years and older and despite being a little on the young side, she was allowed to join.

Swimming competitively at that point simply involved the annual school swimming gala.  Despite Iona describing to me that swimming makes her feel “free and calm”, those galas were always quite competitive, winning points for your house and that kind of thing, made more so as Iona’s older brother was sports captain!  Iona was active in other ways too:

“I used to run the 5K Park Run with my dad and our dog.  I got my 50 runs t-shirt.  It was great doing this as everyone cheered each other on and I met lots of people. I also loved playing netball at primary school and belonged to a club for a while. I used to do ballet, but I gave it up to concentrate on my swimming.”

Her coach, Michael Ellis – a national level athlete who knows what goes into elite sport - explains how her swimming career started to progress:

“It was after she got British Classification a few years ago and started to pick up junior medals that we at the club started to wonder how far she could go. We identified Iona as one to 'fast track'.

I had the idea that she could get a senior major championship at some point over the next few years and LA 2028 was at the back of my mind.”

In November 2022, with her para classification from Swim England, Iona went to Glasgow for the British national para meet, where she came away with:

Gold in 50m breaststroke

Gold in 50m butterfly

Silver in 100m breaststroke

Bronze in 100m freestyle

Bronze in 50m freestyle in her age group.

Wow!  What a haul!

Gillian Iona’s mum recounts, “This was the first time she swam alongside the top GB para swimmers.  Since then, she's become faster and faster, swimming at meets all over the UK and now the world, breaking British and now European records.”

Understandably, Aquatics GB were expressing interest.  They put her forward for her World Para classification in March this year but that doesn’t mean it was a ‘done deal’ when it comes to the Paralympics. 

Michael tells me, “The selection policy itself was pretty clear cut. You had to swim under a nomination standard at the Paralympic Trials at the start of April. It didn't matter what you'd done before that, if you didn't swim the time at the trials you weren't eligible for an automatic spot; there were a few discretionary slots available but you don't want to leave it up to chance.

At the start of February 2024, Iona went 1:36 for the first time at the Kent Championships, the nomination time for 100m Breaststroke was 1:34.85. So, we had six weeks to find two seconds.

About two weeks before Paralympic trials, Iona went to Italy for a World Series meet. There she received world classification, which meant she was now eligible for international competition. She also swam a 1:34 for the first time, so we knew she had the time in her.

Her heat swim was a 1:35 at trials so she had to hit the time in the final. She ended up swimming 1:31.18. I was so fixated on the time I didn't even realise she'd also won the race!  We knew she'd done everything to satisfy the selection criteria, we just had to wait for the official nomination form to come through.

Between then and now Iona picked up two golds and a bronze at the European Championships. She had to swim there as part of her Paris selection.” 

Iona’s training schedule is tough and it took her a while to adjust to the demands, Michael says, but winning and breaking records were and are motivating.  She currently swims three evenings a week and two early mornings at the weekend, swimming for eight hours in total. This summer she’s spending a week in Northampton training with some of her other teammates, but otherwise, she’s doing what she’s always done: training in Tonbridge with her club mates. 

She’s going to the GB holding camp the week before the Games for final training.

Iona tells me that she is pleased and proud about securing a place on Team GB and as for the games, she’s “happy and nervous.”  “I find competitions challenging, but I love the intensity at a competition.  I find racing other top swimmers gives me the chance to do my best,” Iona says.

As a parent, how do you prepare a child who’s about to go to the Olympics? 

“We’ve told her to enjoy it and do her best,” says Gillian. 

We are all very excited and proud of you Iona but agree with your mum: please enjoy the experience of the Paralympic Games and remember that you can only do your best! 

Good luck Iona – we’ll be cheering you on!

Photos credit: Michael Ellis