Swim star's bright future

She had spent half a dozen years in international swimming in search of a Paralympic gold medal, succeeding spectacularly at the 2012 London Paralympics, where she took home four gold and two bronze. But for the Australian swimmer Ellie Cole, 32, standing on top of the Paralympic podium for the first time wasn’t the pinnacle of her career. 

In fact, when she lined up to race in the women’s 100m backstroke S9 final in London, victory was almost a foregone conclusion. 

“I knew that if I got to the halfway mark first in that race, I had it in the bag,” says the ACU graduate and four-time Paralympian, who announced her retirement from swimming in 2022.

“It was definitely nice to stand on the podium and know that you’ve reached the top, but it wasn’t necessarily unexpected. I was really confident that I’d win.” 

Cole knew at that point that she was the best in the world in her category – but she had even higher aspirations. 

“I hadn’t broken an individual world record,” she says, “so that immediately became my next goal.”  

Fulfilling her potential

Unfortunately for Cole, what followed after the London games was the longest break from swimming in her career.  

Forced to have reconstructive surgery on both shoulders, she was barely able to swim a stroke for much of the next year. She had even briefly considered leaving the sport she loved. 

Instead, she used the extra time she had through her recovery to hit the books. 

Cole was midway through a Bachelor of Exercise and Health Science at ACU at the time, so when she wasn’t working on getting herself back into the pool, she was diving deep into subjects like biomechanics, physiology and exercise prescription. 

“I was using all the tools that I was learning through my studies and taking them straight to my training that afternoon, creating a new program that had never been done before in swimming,” she recalls. 

Pretty soon, she started to see results through her rehabilitation.  

“It felt amazing, and I think that if I wasn’t studying those subjects at that time, I might not have recovered at the same speed and in the same way.” 

A year later, at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, Cole finally reached her goal. Not only did she break the world record in the women’s 100-metre backstroke S9 heat, she followed it up again in the final, smashing her own record with a blistering swim. 

“I honestly don’t believe I would’ve made such a strong comeback from injury if I hadn’t been doing my degree,” says Cole, who graduated from ACU in 2019. 

“That experience of studying through my recovery, putting the new things I was learning into practice in real time, it was a symbiotic relationship. I fell in love with the process of learning, and at the same time, I was gaining a new perspective on my sport.”

By the time she had retired after the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Cole was Australia’s most decorated female Paralympian, with 17 medals to her name. She received global exposure through her appearance in the Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix, and has won a host of recognitions including being appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “significant service to sport as an advocate for diversity and inclusion”. 

She wants to use her platform to ensure that more people are given a chance to reach their potential.  

“The Paralympic movement has given me so many opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise had as a person with a disability – it’s completely changed my life,” says Cole, who is one of the lead campaigners for WeThe15 – a global movement designed to change attitudes and create opportunities for people with disabilities. 

“I’ve seen firsthand what can happen when someone is given a chance to thrive, and at the same time, as an athlete, I live in a bit of a bubble. I’m very aware that while Paralympians are given amazing opportunities to flourish in the sporting industry, out there in the wider world, people with disabilities don’t necessarily see those opportunities. Helping to change that is so important, and it’s an area that I’m really passionate about.” 

Overcoming challenges

Retiring from swimming has also given Ellie Cole the chance to reflect on her pathway to Paralympic stardom. 

That journey began in earnest at the age of two, when she was diagnosed with a life-threatening sarcoma in her right leg. Months of chemotherapy made her extremely ill, but the cancer persisted, leaving her parents with no choice but to have her leg amputated.

From then to now.

As keen swimmers, they decided to get young Ellie into the pool as part of her rehabilitation. Weeks later, she surprised her instructors when she successfully swam in a straight line, which they predicted would take her a year to achieve. 

“I have killer genetics,” Cole told ABC TV in 2012. “My dad is naturally athletic and my mum has rubber bands for muscles. If you combine the two together, you get a swimmer.” 

Natural talent aside, being a champion para-athlete requires hard work and dedication. Over her long career, Cole faced an arduous regimen that included punishing pre-dawn starts, up to a dozen swim sessions a week, regular gym-based training, and visits to physios, massage therapists, and dietitians.   

Then there’s the pressure of competing at the level that’s expected of a gold medal winner.  

“That pressure can sit quite heavily on your shoulders, and stress was a really big thing for me,” says Cole, who has spoken publicly about the self-doubt she overcame to win individual gold at her third Paralympics in Rio.  

“You have to be so single-minded in your focus, and when you spend all your time training and thinking about your sport, it certainly puts a roof on the ways you can explore who you are. It’s also hard on those around you, because a lot of the time, the sport has to come first.” 

Juggling sport and study was another difficult relationship to manage, she says. Cole got through with the backing of ACU’s Elite Athlete and Performer Program, which supports athletes and performers as they go through their degree. 

“I owe a lot to ACU,” says Cole, who in 2022 won an ACU Blue, an award for athletes who perform at the top level while maintaining their academic studies. 

“In many ways, being at university was like being in sport because there’s a team environment, and there are people by your side helping you to reach your potential. If you show the same commitment and dedication to your studies as you do to your sport, you’ll definitely get to the top.” 

A bright future

As impressive as Cole’s swimming career was, she’s also making waves through her work out of the pool.

Ellie at the Tokyo Paralympics

Whether it’s her role as a motivational speaker, her burgeoning media career with the Nine Network, her advocacy as an ambassador for disability employment provider APM, or her work as a sports administrator, Cole has a lot going for her. 

“When I lost my leg, my parents’ biggest concern was that I wouldn’t have any opportunities because at that point in time, in the early 1990s, they never saw anybody with a disability represented in our community,” says Cole, who became a parent herself in early 2024. 

“I’ve really seen what sport can do for disability inclusion and it’s been incredible. People used to be sympathetic to me, but they’re not anymore. They can see that I’m able to pursue opportunities in any area I want to.”

Her goal to uplift the lives of others in the disability community is near the top of her career to-do list. 

“I want everyone else to have the same opportunities that I’ve had in sport, but in whatever path they decide to pursue – whether it’s sport or academia or any type of career,” she says.  

“When you’re a person with a disability, you shouldn’t have to be a world-class athlete to be seen. We all have a purpose in life, so we should recognise the potential in everyone, and make sure they’re given opportunities to be their best.”

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