Ellie Cole AM’s contribution to sport and the community has been recognised at the 2026 NSWIS Awards with the greatest honour the Institute can bestow upon an athlete, NSWIS Most Outstanding.
Ms Cole, who continues to make meaningful contributions to sport and society through her roles as a NSWIS Board member, with Paralympics Australia, Sport Integrity Australia, and as manager of Australia’s Commonwealth Games Youth Team, was honoured to be presented with the award by The Hon. Steve Kamper MP, Minister for Sport.
Australia’s most successful female Paralympian with 17 medals, Ms Cole joins eight sporting greats to have received the accolade which recognises exceptional personal and sporting contributions by a NSWIS athlete: Ian Thorpe AM (swimming), Louise Sauvage OAM (wheelchair track & road), Alyson Annan OAM (hockey), Michael Milton OAM (Para alpine skiing), Brad McGee OAM (cycling), Liz Ellis AO (netball), Matthew Mitcham OAM (diving) and Kurt Fearnley AO (wheelchair track & road).
Ms Cole, whose record Paralympic medal haul includes six gold medals, started her sporting journey as an infant who survived a rare, life-threatening neurosarcoma (a rare type of soft-tissue/nerve sarcoma) that had wrapped around the nerves in her right leg. When chemotherapy failed to shrink the tumour, her leg was amputated above the knee on Valentine’s Day in 1994.
She was only three years old.
Eight weeks after surgery, she began swimming lessons as part of her rehabilitation. The pool eventually became the gateway to a sporting career, and a life, she could never have imagined.
Your Para Sport Journey
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Watching a video of her career before accepting the award, Ms Cole said her thoughts were with her parents, Jenny and Don.
“Looking back at that footage, my parents were in the oncology ward thinking my life would never be the same again,” Ms Cole told Matt Shirvington, a NSWIS alumnus, Olympian, NSWIS Board member and co-host of Channel 7’s Sunrise.
“To think of the life I have now, I just wish I could go back and tell them everything was going to be fine and I’d find a great group of people through sport that were going to support me and who was going to champion everything about me and each other.”
Asked what she would tell her three-year-old self about the life ahead, Ms Cole responded with a laugh.
“I’d tell her there’s a lot of early mornings,” she joked, recalling memories of setting her 3am training alarm. “One thing I will say is I never expected to have the career that I did. Looking back on that young girl and knowing how far the Paralympic Movement was going to come has been heartwarming to not only witness it, but to be a part of that Movement as well.”
Announcing the award, Mr Shirvington said the rare NSWIS Most Outstanding achievement recognised Ms Cole’s impact in, and beyond, the pool.
He noted, as a passionate advocate for people with disability, Ms Cole has used her platform to challenge perceptions, increase visibility and champion greater inclusion in sport and the broader community.
“She has elevated Paralympic sport and amplified the voices of athletes with a disability,” he said. “Her passion, and purpose, has contributed to a more inclusive and vibrant sporting community.
“Tonight we honour not only an extraordinary sporting career, but the difference this exceptional person continues to make to help shape a sporting world where everyone doesn’t simply participate . . . they thrive.
“Ellie, you are so deserving of this.”
By Daniel Lane, NSWIS
Photos: NSWIS and Delly Carr
Paralympics Australia is only able to continue doing its work driving the Paralympic Movement forward in Australia because of the generous support it receives from Government, Corporate Partners and donors.
The focus continues to be on delivering teams to each Summer and Winter Paralympic Games and supporting Para athletes as they enter and progress through the Para sport system and into their post-sporting careers.
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