Paralympics 2024: Great Britain’s Ellie Challis and Louise Fiddes win golds in Paris

Great Britain won two swimming gold medals in 15 magical minutes in the pool at the Paris Paralympics on Monday.

World champion Ellie Challis first put in a dominant performance to win the women’s S3 50m backstroke final.

Then Louise Fiddes, 23, held off Brazilian favourites Debora and Beatriz Carneiro to take the S14m 100m breaststroke final.

The two Britons are room-mates in Paris and both improved on the silver medals they won three years ago in Tokyo.

Fiddes told Channel 4 before her race she was “on the edge of her seat” watching Challis, who she labelled a “queen”.

“If she can do it, I can do it,” she added.

Challis, 20, swam a lifetime best of 53.56 seconds, almost five seconds clear of second-placed Russian Zoia Shchurova, with Spain’s Marta Fernandez Infante taking bronze.

She will now look to back up Monday’s dominant performance in the S3 100m freestyle heats on Tuesday.

Fiddes, who took bronze in the S14 200m freestyle two days ago, finished 0.55 seconds clear of second-placed Debora Carneiro, with twin Beatriz Carneiro winning bronze.

“There were so many years when I felt like my dream was slipping away,” a tearful Fiddes added afterwards. “Only in this year, I started getting back to it.”

After five days in the pool in Paris, ParalympicsGB have won 18 medals, 13 of them gold.