Ellie Cole

Ellie Victoria Cole OAM is an Australian Paralympic swimmer and wheelchair basketball player. After having her leg amputated due to cancer, she trained in swimming as part of her rehabilitation program and progressed more rapidly than instructors had predicted. She began competitive swimming in 2003 and first competed internationally at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships, where she won a silver medal. Since then, she has won medals in the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, the Commonwealth Games, the Paralympic Games, the IPC Swimming World Championships, and various national championships. At the 2012 London Paralympics, she won four gold and two bronze medals. After the Games, she underwent two shoulder reconstructions and made a successful return to swimming at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships winning five medals including three gold medals. She has been selected to represent Australia at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics.

Ellie Victoria Cole was born in the Melbourne suburb of Lilydale onDecember 1991. Her mother and grandfather were both swimmers, and her father was athletic. At two years of age, she was diagnosed with a rare tumour, a sarcoma that was wrapped around the nerves of her right leg. After unsuccessful attempts to treat her cancer with chemotherapy, her right leg was amputated above the knee onFebruary 1994. Eight weeks after the surgery, as part of her rehabilitation, Coles mother Jenny enrolled her in swimming lessons. Coles instructors expected her to take up to a year to learn how to swim in a straight line, but it took her two weeks.

Source: Wikipedia