Background
Russell was born in Ottershaw, Surrey in 1996.
Russell was born in Ottershaw, Surrey in 1996.
She was educated at Gordon"s School in West End in Surrey, before switching to Kelly College in Tavistock.
Road to London 2012
Russell, who has a visual impairment, took up swimming at the age of five, first joining Woking Swimming Club before then moving to Guildford City Swimming Club at the age of twelve. In 2010 she was scouted through the "Playground to Podium" initiative, a British system of spotting sporting talent in young people with a disability. After being classified as S12 in 2011, she entered the 2011 IPC European Championships, in Berlin.
In 2012 she took part in the 2012 British Championships, taking another two medals, taking gold in the 100 m backstroke and silver in the 400 m freestyle.
During the British Championship, Russell broke the European record in the S12 class 100 m backstroke, with a time of 1:09.52. Later that month, at the Nationwide Junior and Youth Swimming Championships in Sheffield, she broke two S12 world records, in the 400 m freestyle and the 100 m backstroke.
Although stating that her sights were set on qualifying for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Russell"s results were good enough to make the Great Britain swimming team for the 2012 Games in London. In her first event, the 400 m freestyle she swam a personal best of 4:38.60 to take the silver, her first paralympic medal.
She finished 0.71 seconds behind Oxana Savchenko of Russia.
Montreal to Rio
In 2013 Russell entered her first IPC Swimming World Championships when she travelled to Montreal as part of the Great Britain team The following year she took part in the 2014 IPC Swimming European Championships in Eindhoven. At the games she continued her rivalry with Russian Darya Stukalova which began in Montreal.
Her final major international before the 2016 Paralympics was the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships, held in Glasgow.
The 2015 Championships had a narrower list of events for S12 classification swimmers, and Russell entered only three events, winning gold in the 50m freestyle and two silver medals in the 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle.
At 16 years old, she was one of the youngest members of the team, and was entered into five S12 events the 50 m freestyle, 100 m freestyle, 400 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke, 100 m butterfly.