Ellie Cole AM
Paralympian, Advocate & Motivational Speaker
With 17 Paralympic medals, flagbearer honours at Tokyo 2020, and a 2024 AM for her advocacy in diversity and inclusion, Ellie is raw, funny, charismatic, and inspiring. A talented speaker and MC, she connects with every audience, from students to corporate teams and boards, leaving a lasting impression.
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After losing her right leg to cancer at age three, Ellie Cole became Australia’s most decorated female Paralympic athlete, winning a record-breaking 17 Paralympic medals. Her extraordinary achievements include being honoured as flagbearer at the Tokyo 2020 Closing Ceremony, and in 2024 she was awarded an AM for her service to sport and advocacy for diversity and inclusion.
Ellie is raw, real, funny, and charismatic—refreshingly humble and often unaware of the inspiration she provides. A popular speaker and MC, she connects effortlessly with audiences, from students and corporate teams to senior boards, passionately championing diversity and inclusion.
A familiar face across Australian media, Ellie has appeared on the ABC, SBS, Seven, Nine, and Ten, fronted the Channel 9 commentary team for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, and remains a regular host on Wide World of Sports. With a strong social following and wide media recognition, Ellie leverages her platform to inspire, educate, and empower audiences both nationally and internationally.
Topics
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 and 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 and 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.
