TOKYO DREAMING
ELLIE COLE
PARA SWIMMING
SIX-TIME PARALYMPIC GOLD MEDALLIST
Growing up, Ellie looked up to swimmers Susie O’Neill, Petria Thomas and Jodie Henry, and now, the 29-year-old has become a legend herself. Ellie, who specialises in freestyle and backstroke, has won 15 Paralympic medals (including six gold) and is featured in the 2020 Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix, a tribute to Paralympic great achievers. This will be her fourth Games.
Swimming isn’t just a sport...
It means a lot more than that to this star. “I grew up with one leg when everybody else had two. A lot of my memories when I was young are of being sidelined at school sport. When I got in the water, I felt the same as everybody else and that gave me a lot of confidence and that’s why I owe so much to Paralympic sport. Sport can change the world.”
Her training schedule...
...is enough to make you need a sit down just from reading it. “We get up before the sun does and do nine pool sessions a week, and they’re about two to two-and-a-half hours long. Then we do three strength-and-conditioning sessions a week. In between all of those sessions we’re doing a lot of physio, prehab work, massages, nutrition talks.”
Stress was a really big thing...
...for Ellie last year. “I started getting a lot of stress migraines and I had to learn
