‘My goggles filled with tears’: Ellie Cole on medals, motherhood – and silver linings

In this episode we speak with Ellie Cole. Cole, of course, is a childhood cancer survivor whose right leg was amputated when she was 3. Within weeks of that operation, she was swimming as a form of rehab, before ultimately going on to become the most decorated Aussie female Paralympian of all time, with 17 medals over four games. In recent years she’s become a rising star in Australian sports media, as a trusted and charismatic broadcaster, not to mention staunch disability advocate, and now children’s book author. Cole recently became a mum to her little boy Felix, and her new book – “Felix and his Fantastic Friends” – is inspired by his adventures in early childhood, and her own in motherhood. Hosting this conversation – about everything Cole’s relationship with her twin sister to the complicated challenge of Paralympic classification – is a man who covered Cole’s final games in Tokyo in 2021 – Sydney Morning Herald sports journalist, Tom Decent.

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