Ellie Cole OAM (b. 1991), swimming champion, is Australia's most decorated female Paralympian. Diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in her right leg, at age three she underwent surgery to amputate the limb above the knee. Her parents enrolled her in swimming lessons to help with her rehabilitation. She was fifteen when she competed in the World Championships for the first time, winning a silver medal. Having qualified for the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008, she had few expectations other than to 'have a little bit of fun', but instead won three medals. At the Paralympics in London in 2012, she won four gold and two bronze medals. In 2016 – having recovered from two shoulder reconstructions and having won three world titles – she won six medals at the Paralympics in Rio. Her two Paralympic medals in Tokyo in 2021 bring her tally to seventeen.
Wylie's Baths in Coogee is the dramatic backdrop for Peter Brew-Bevan's 2016 portrait of Cole. Photographed for an article about Australian women competing in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio for Marie Claire magazine, Cole's portrait appeared again in 2020 to coincide with the launch of Rising Phoenix, a Netflix documentary profiling six athletes who competed at the 2012 Paralympics.
Purchased with funds provided by the Annual Appeal for Contemporary Australian Photography 2021
© Peter Brew-Bevan
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