Ellie Cole AM

After losing her right leg to cancer at age 3, in 2021 she became Australia’s most decorated female Paralympic athlete, with a record-breaking 17 Paralympic medals.

Ellie Cole is a Paralympian like no one you’ve ever met before.  In her 17yrs in the pool, Ellie has risen to prolific heights and, in recognition was honoured as the flagbearer at the Tokyo 2020 Closing Ceremony.

In January 2024 she was awarded an AM for her significant service to sport as an advocate for diversity and inclusion.

Ellie is raw and real, funny and wonderfully charismatic, refreshingly humble and completely unaware of the true inspiration she is. A popular speaker and MC, she finds ways to connect with her audiences; whether students, corporate teams or senior boards and she is incredibly passionate about the subject of diversity and inclusion, leveraging her strong platform as an athlete to highlight important causes.

She has a strong and engaged social following and is well loved by the media both here and abroad. She has appeared in countless magazines and broadcast programs across a variety of networks spanning the 7 network, the ABC, SBS, 9 and 10 and most recently fronted the Channel 9 commentary team for the Paris Olympic and Paralympics Games in 2024. She also remains a regular host on 9’s Wide World of Sports program.

Ellie Cole Talks About

Motivational Mindset

Shifting your mindset can be the difference between a happy, fulfilled existence and a daily struggle. After a year of unsuccessful chemotherapy, Ellie’s parents made the heartbreaking decision to amputate her leg. She jumped into a swimming pool eight weeks later for rehabilitation – and from that moment built an inspiring and glittering career.

Ellie focuses on embracing life and adapting to change. She believes that having a disability has taught her that things don’t always go our way, and how important it is to focus on the positive and move forward.

A lot of people have emotional limitations that prevent them from living the lives they want to live – but Ellie says these are stepping stones that are easy to overcome – once you know how.

Diversity, Inclusion & Positive Impact

Throughout Ellie’s career as a Paralympic athlete, she has seen first-hand how genuine acceptance and encouragement of diversity and inclusion practices can be a serious game changer. Not only does diversity provide society and individuals with an empowering competitive advantage, but it also brings together people from different backgrounds to excel in creativity, problem solving and innovation.

Here Ellie shares her tips and experiences in building brilliantly diverse teams and communities and the enormous benefit we can all enjoy from it.

Accessible Communities & Environments

The tourism industry contributes 10.8 billion dollars to our Australian Visitor Economy, which is greater than the Chinese tourism industry. With an estimated 20% of Australian adults having a disability and an ageing population, the disability sector is set to grow. So, how we can change our world to accommodate people living with an impairment?

Through the process of universal design our world can be accessed, understood and used by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability. An inclusive world is not waiting for a special occasion to address issues in our environment, but by doing the best we can to address issues in our communities so they are able to be enjoyed by all.