Ellie Cole

Ellie Victoria Cole, (born 12 December 1991) is an Australian retired Paralympic swimmer and wheelchair basketball player.

After having her leg amputated due to cancer, she trained in swimming as part of her rehabilitation program and progressed more rapidly than instructors had predicted.

Ellie Victoria Cole was born in Lilydale, Victoria, on 12 December 1991.

Her mother and grandfather were both swimmers, and her father was athletic.

At two years of age, she was diagnosed with a rare tumour, a neurosarcoma that was wrapped around the nerves of her right leg.

After unsuccessful attempts to treat her cancer with chemotherapy, her right leg was amputated above the knee on 14 February 1994.

Eight weeks after the surgery, as part of her rehabilitation, Cole's mother Jenny enrolled her in swimming lessons.

Cole's instructors expected her to take up to a year to learn how to swim in a straight line, but it took her two weeks.

Cole attended Mount Eliza North Primary school and Frankston High School, both in the outer Melbourne suburb of Frankston.

As of 2021 she lives in Sydney and trains at the Knox Pymble Swim Club.

She has completed a Bachelor in Health and Exercise Science at the Australian Catholic University.

She began competitive swimming in 2003 and first competed internationally at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships, where she won a silver medal.

Since then, she has won medals in the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, the Commonwealth Games, the Paralympic Games, the IPC Swimming World Championships, and various national championships.

She began competitive swimming in 2003 and, at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships in Durban, she won a silver medal in the women's 100m backstroke S9 event.

Also in 2006 Cole won the 100m backstroke at the Telstra Australian Swimming Championships.

Cole qualified for the Australian Paralympic Swim Team in 2008 and, in the same year, attended the Beijing Paralympics where she won a silver medal in the Women's 100m Butterfly S9 event and bronze medals in the 400m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke events.

On 12 August 2009 Cole participated in the 100m freestyle multi-disability event in the 2009 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships in Hobart, where she broke the world record with a time of 1:04:06.

This championship is the qualifying event for the IPC Swimming World Championships, run by FINA, the international organization for swimming.

The same year Cole participated in the 2009 IPC Swimming World Championships 25 m in Rio de Janeiro, where she won bronze medals in the 100m backstroke, 400m freestyle, 4 × 100m freestyle relay and the 200m individual medley.

In 2010 at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands she won bronze medals in the women's 200m individual medley and 400m freestyle S9 events.

In that same year she won bronze medals in the 100m Freestyle S9 and 100m Butterfly S9 events at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

At the 2011 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada she won a total of six gold medals, emerging victorious in the women's 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 100m backstroke and 200m individual medley S9 events.

Cole has also participated in national championships such as the Australian Age Multi Class Swimming Championships and the New South Wales State Open championships.

The former competition is held in Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport and is designed to prepare elite swimmers for international competition.

Following the 2012 London Paralympics, where she won four gold and two bronze medals, Cole underwent two shoulder reconstructions and made a successful return to swimming at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships, winning five medals, including three golds.

She then participated in the 2012 New South Wales State Open Championships in multi-class events.

Cole was an Australian Institute of Sport Scholarship holder.

Her coach, Graeme Carroll, trained her in Canberra in preparation for the 2012 London Paralympics with an approach that combined swim training with aerobics and gym work.

She trained with Teigan Van Roosmalen, a blind and deaf S13 swimmer.

Cole also mentors young athletes.

When not in high school Cole was undertaking ten or more swimming sessions a week but, while at school, she reduced her load.

As of 2021, her coach is Nick Dobson.

At the 2012 London Paralympics, Cole participated in eight events and won six medals.

In her first event, the 100 m Butterfly S9, she finished fourth, while South Africa's Natalie du Toit finished first.

She subsequently represented Australia at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics, the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

In claiming her seventeenth Paralympic medal in Tokyo, Cole became Australia's most decorated female Paralympian with six gold, five silver and six bronze medals from four Paralympic Games.

Cole was featured in the 2020 documentary film Rising Phoenix on Netflix , which focused on the Paralympic Games.

She also campaigns for #WeThe15, a global human rights movement for disabled people.

Cole announced her retirement from swimming at the August 2022 Duel in the Pool.

Cole is classified in the S9 category in swimming due to her amputation, a classification that also includes swimmers who have joint restrictions in one leg and those with double below-knee amputations.