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. Swimming competitively by age twelve, Cole was fifteen when she competed in the World Championships for the first time, winning a silver medal. Having qualified for the Paralympic Games in 2008, she embarked for Beijing with few expectations other than to 'have a little bit of fun', but instead returned to Melbourne with three medals. Cole won four gold medals and two bronze medals at the London Paralympics in 2012. Four years later – having recovered from two shoulder reconstructions – she won medals in all six of her events at the Rio Paralympics. At her fourth and final Paralympics in Tokyo in 2021, she won silver and bronze medals. Passionate about the value of sport for people with an impairment, Cole appeared in Rising Phoenix, a Netflix documentary profiling six athletes who competed at the 2012 Paralympics.
Wylie's Baths in Coogee is the dramatic backdrop for Peter Brew-Bevan's 2016 portrait of Cole. Photographed for a Marie Claire article about Australian women competing in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio, Cole's portrait appeared again in 2020 to coincide with the launch of Rising Phoenix.
Purchased with funds provided by the Annual Appeal for Contemporary Australian Photography 2021
© Peter Brew-Bevan
The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the
Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a
Reproduction request. For further information please contact
NPG Copyright.
