London: The nation has a new sweetheart. She is 17 years old, swims very swiftly, has a smile to light up a city, and her name is Ellie Simmonds.
Last night, in the bedlam of the Olympic Aquatics Centre, she contested one of the greatest, most compelling races that modern sport has seen.
And in winning gold and breaking a world record, she single-handedly ensured the success of London’s Paralympic Games.
Ellie, who is afflicted by dwarfism, was already the poster girl of the Games, following her two gold medals four years ago as the youngest British athlete in Beijing.
Back then, she beguiled the country with her charm, her pluck, her unfailing modesty.
But the manner of her victory over controversial American rival Victoria Arlen in the S6 400m freestyle moves her into new territory.
Arlen, 17, made the final only after a last-minute reprieve granted her permission to take part in the S6 category.
She was originally ruled ‘ineligible’ because her paralysis was not deemed severe enough.
It was a race torn from history’s pages, as unpredictable as it was dramatic.
Arlen set a daunting early tempo, seeking to break the field.
Length by length, the competition fell away. Only Ellie remained, clinging to the pace, refusing to be discarded, revealing the courage that champions possess.
She timed her effort to perfection, drawing level at the final turn, then pulling away with improbable energy, her arms churning the water like an outboard motor.
She moved clear through the stunning clamour, in a moment to match the triumph of Mo Farah a few Saturdays ago.
And as she touched, with a second to spare, a whole range of emotions flickered across her face; agony, exhaustion, bewilderment, exaltation.
It was a moment she will never forget, and neither will the nation which celebrated it.
It was Britain’s fifth gold medal of a tumultuous day, a day which did more for Paralympic sport than any this country has known.
In addition to the wonderful Ellie, there were cycling golds for the husband and wife pair, Barney and Sarah Storey, for Natasha Baker in the individual dressage in Greenwich Park, and for Richard Whitehead in the 200m on the athletics track.
The nation’s appetite and support for the Paralympics has exceeded every forecast.
Once again yesterday morning, 80,000 people turned up at the main stadium to watch sports they barely understood and athletes of whom they may never have heard.
As a demonstration of how dearly the British prize their sport as well as their sportsmen and women, it has never been equalled.
As ever, in these extraordinary Games, it was the personal histories, the back stories, which impressed along with the performances.
Whitehead, from Nottingham, who was born with legs that finish above the knee, surged through to the 200m gold medal in the Olympic Stadium and dedicated the achievement to a friend who died of cancer in 2005.
That friend, Simon Mellows, had introduced him to marathon running, and Whitehead became world record holder at that distance.
‘He was the person that was bringing me round that bend and through the straight today,’ he said.
‘He was the one I was thinking of. I just thanked him for being at the start of my journey.
‘To see the kind of fight that he went through with a young family basically set a seed in my head about what sport’s all about. His widow is here today with her two kids, and it’s just amazing, I know they will be welling up now.
‘They know how important a contribution he has made to me.’
When he was persuaded to discuss his own performance, he said: ‘I wanted to show that Olympic and Paralympic athletes are on the same platform now.
'We all perform to our highest ability and both Paralympic and Olympic athletes are inspiring a generation and leaving a legacy for years to come.’
It was not the kind of sentiment one often hears from our Premier League footballers.
It was in the hermetically sealed, temperature-controlled Velodrome, most impressive of all the Olympic constructions, that the noise was fiercest, the passion most extreme.
In mid-morning, Britain’s Neil Fachie and his sighted pilot Barney Storey set a world record as they won gold in the 1km time trial. Their time of 1min 1.351sec was the fastest achieved on a tandem, either Paralympic or able-bodied.
They were assisted by the disqualification for false starts of their colleagues Anthony Kappes and Craig Maclean.
And once again, everybody involved behaved impeccably. ‘I’d have given anything to have them on the podium with us,’ said Aberdonian Fachie. ‘I really wanted to beat them in a fair race.’
Storey reflected: ‘We’re absolutely gutted. They’re our friends and it’s not a nice thing to happen.’
He then helped wife Sarah prepare for her own test in the C4-5 500m individual time-trial. She did not disappoint.
Born without a functioning left hand, the 34-year-old once competed against able-bodied cyclists in the Commonwealth Games.
She almost made the team pursuit in the Olympics, but her consolation was a second gold medal, the ninth of her Paralympic career, to add to her pursuit gold of the opening day.
As ever, it was an unfolding drama, with the lead passing from Poland, to the US, before Sarah simply blew them all away with a performance both masterful and irresistible.
As she crossed the line, yelling her joy, home by half a second, the roar of the crowd bounced off the walls.
She selected her words quite splendidly: ‘It’s just incredible. If you move everyone cheers, if you wave they all shout “hello”.
It’s amazing. You feel like your own family has grown by 6,000 people. It’s just the most incredible venue. I feel proud and privileged to have had the chance to win in front of them.’
As for her husband, she was bursting with justified pride. ‘I gave him a hug and told him he was amazing,’ she said. ‘I told him I hoped I’d be just as amazing when it was my turn.’ She did not fail.
She has the chance to equal Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson’s British women’s record of 11 golds in the road race and time trial next week. And she will not lack support.
There was reward for Jon-Allan Butterworth, the former RAF serviceman who lost an arm to a rocket attack in Iraq and who yesterday took his second silver of the Games in the individual C5 pursuit.
Also for Jody Cundy, who threw a spectacular tantrum when ruled out of the time trial the day before.
This time, he was rather more composed after winning bronze in the C4 4km pursuit.
‘That crowd – you’ve got so much support, you don’t want to let them down,’ he said. ‘I’ll treat this as my gold medal.’
The crowd was still cheering as the athletes took their leave, and their cheers told us something of the national mood.
Already, after just three days of competition, we have learned more about the potential of these remarkable athletes.
We are learning, slowly but certainly, to look beyond the disability and relish the talent. The result is unexpected: we have started to abandon that dreary Thatcherite heresy about there being ‘no such thing as society’.
For of course society exists, and the disabled have a full and valued part to play in that society. Say it softly, but the Paralympic Games of London are telling us that we are nicer people than we thought.
There are worse discoveries, and far worse legacies.
... BUT SPARE A THOUGHT FOR A HEROIC LOSER
Djibouti's Houssein Omar Hassan did not win any medals yesterday, but may have broken a world record – for the longest standing ovation for coming last.
Houssein Omar Hassan became an unlikely star of the Paralympics as he finished a 1500m heat for T46 class arm amputees two laps behind all other competitors.
For seven minutes, the 80,000-strong crowd at the Olympics stadium stood cheering as Hassan plodded towards the line.
The 35-year-old, who is missing his right arm, crossed the finishing line at 11 minutes 23 seconds, seven minutes behind the winner, Algeria’s Samir Nouioua, who came in at three minutes 57 seconds.
Mr Hassan is the only Paralympic athlete from the tiny African nation Djibouti.
