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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Female Athlete Project. My name is Chloe Dalton.

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Speaker 1: I'm an Olympic gold medalist in rugby sevens and because

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Speaker 1: I have commitment issues, have also played two other sports

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Speaker 1: at professional level. The last two seasons, I've played for

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Speaker 1: Carlton in the AIRFLW and prior to that played for

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Speaker 1: the Sydney Uni Flames and the Women's National Basketball League.

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Speaker 1: I'm currently training full time with the Australian rugby sevens

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Speaker 1: for the now Tokyo twenty twenty one Olympics. One of

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Speaker 1: my favorite things to do is to head down to

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Speaker 1: the beach, grab a coffee and the paper, click to

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Speaker 1: the back page and read about sport. I've had enough

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Speaker 1: of only reading stories about men's sport, so I decided

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Speaker 1: to do something about it. One day, female athletes will

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Speaker 1: be recognized by their achievements and not by their gender.

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Speaker 1: Until then, I'm going to chat to and share the

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Speaker 1: stories of epic ossie female athletes. This episode is brought

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Speaker 1: to you by Workplace Law. The team at Workplace Law

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Speaker 1: are incredible supporters of Australian female athletes. Want to find

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Speaker 1: out more about their amazing work, head to workplace Law

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Speaker 1: dot com dot Au swimmer Ellie Cole is a bloody legend.

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Speaker 1: She's a six time Paralympic champion, a world record holder,

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Speaker 1: and an incredible role model. In twenty twenty, Ellie featured

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Speaker 1: in the amazing Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix. At age three,

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Speaker 1: Ellie's right leg was amputated above the knee after she

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Speaker 1: suffered a life threatening sarcoma cancer.

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Speaker 2: Ellie is classified in the S.

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Speaker 1: Nine category in swimming due to her amputation, a classification

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Speaker 1: that also includes swimmers who have joint restrictions in one

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Speaker 1: leg and those with double blow knee amputations. Ellie has

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Speaker 1: a wicked sense of humor. She's warm and open and

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Speaker 1: as you're here, has a really beautiful sense of appreciation

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Speaker 1: for life. I hope you enjoy it, Ellie Cole, Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Female Athlete Project.

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Speaker 3: Well, thanks for coming and meeting me here. It's nice

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Speaker 3: not having to go anywhere. It's like my hometown here,

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Speaker 3: so thank you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no worries.

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Speaker 1: Yes, we're at my old school in Pimble where you've

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Speaker 1: been doing a bit of treeing recently. It's been an

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Speaker 1: interesting year for a lot of people, including the postponement

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Speaker 1: of Tokyo, so tell us a little bit about what

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Speaker 1: your year has looked like.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it has been crazy, actually, you know, in a way,

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Speaker 3: I guess it's a little bit exciting, just because it's

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Speaker 3: really thrown a spanner in the works and it's so different.

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Speaker 3: And I was actually I was with my training partners

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Speaker 3: this morning and I was at breakfast and we haven't

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Speaker 3: really thought about what the other end of Tokyo is

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Speaker 3: going to look like. And I just said, you know,

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Speaker 3: imagine coming home from Tokyo and then sitting in your

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Speaker 3: apartment and just being like, I can't believe all that happens.

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Speaker 3: So that's the exciting bit, you know, being able to

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Speaker 3: tell the stories about, you know, what we had to

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Speaker 3: go through as athletes and how resilient that we had

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Speaker 3: to be leading into Tokyo Games. You know, it's not

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Speaker 3: you I've read Olympics or Paralympics. It's part of history.

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Speaker 3: So that's really exciting. But it's been a very hard

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Speaker 3: year for everybody, obviously our plans having to completely change.

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Speaker 3: But I've learnt so much from this year about you know,

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Speaker 3: I guess knowing that I really want to swim, and

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Speaker 3: I love swimming so much because I wouldn't be going

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Speaker 3: through all of this if I didn't. Yeah, so, I

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Speaker 3: guess I've learned a lot about myself in that way,

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Speaker 3: but just kind of rolling with the punches and seeing

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Speaker 3: how everything goes, which is a different way to train,

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Speaker 3: and it's been pretty fun. Whereas I know a lot

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Speaker 3: of other people don't see it that way.

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Speaker 2: That's good.

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Speaker 1: I feel like it's a quid take to haven't it.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned your training partner's pretty well known swimmers in

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Speaker 1: Brontian Kate Campbell.

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Speaker 2: What was that change like for you?

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Speaker 1: So it was in twenty nineteen that you kind of

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Speaker 1: made the decision to change your coaches and change who

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Speaker 1: you were swimming with heading into the Tokyo Paralympics.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So I'd been, I guess, in power programs my

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Speaker 3: whole life, and I've really enjoyed being a Paralympic swimmer,

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Speaker 3: you know. I'd won a few Paralympic gold medals along

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Speaker 3: the way and broken a world record, which were things

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Speaker 3: that were on my swimming bucket list, and I'd achieved

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Speaker 3: everything that I kind of wanted to, and I guess

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Speaker 3: swimming for me felt a little bit stagnant, and I

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Speaker 3: knew that I needed a really big challenge going into Tokyo,

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Speaker 3: and I thought, you know, who are the best at

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Speaker 3: the time, Parisimas that I can train with in the world.

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Speaker 3: And then I realized that I had, you know, Kitin

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Speaker 3: Bronzie Campbell on my doorstep, and so I was like,

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Speaker 3: you know, and I was really ever done it before?

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Speaker 3: But why not? It's been a really difficult transition going

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Speaker 3: into a program with such high caliber athletes. My coach

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Speaker 3: likes to play a little bit of cat and mouse

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Speaker 3: with us, so he'll send me off a few seconds early.

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Speaker 3: And nothing makes you swim faster than being chased down

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Speaker 3: the pool by the Campbell's sisters. It's like it's like

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Speaker 3: an adrenaline rush. That stressful, yeah, but it's a lot

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Speaker 3: of fun. And you know, I was saying to them

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Speaker 3: a couple of weeks ago that regardless of what happens

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Speaker 3: with Tokyo, I'm going to be so proud of myself

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Speaker 3: just for putting myself out there and I guess not

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Speaker 3: accepting the norm when it comes to training. Definitely going

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Speaker 3: to be very proud of myself when I'm an eighty

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Speaker 3: year old lady, probably with a broken hip, just sitting

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Speaker 3: reflecting on my life it's been a lot of fun.

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Speaker 3: And you know, training with mature athletes as well, swimmers

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Speaker 3: i'm usually you know, in their late twenties, has been

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Speaker 3: really really nice.

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Speaker 1: And have you got anything from them in terms of

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Speaker 1: their mindset and their competitiveness in terms of the way

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Speaker 1: that they attack their training and their races.

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Speaker 3: I think that, you know, like if I think about

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Speaker 3: the difference between the squad that I'm in now and

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Speaker 3: a lot of other squads, it's kind of just it's

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Speaker 3: not that it's taking the ego out of swimming. It's

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Speaker 3: just simplifying everything. You know, swimming is swimming. There's no

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Speaker 3: like fanfare or fireworks when it comes to my squad,

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Speaker 3: which initially I thought that there would be a lot

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Speaker 3: of distractions, but it's kind of just, you know, three

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Speaker 3: girls that just really love to swim, and we're very

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Speaker 3: competitive with each other, but I don't know, it's like

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Speaker 3: we almost don't even really think about the outside world.

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Speaker 3: It's just get to training every day and try and

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Speaker 3: be a little bit better when you walk out the door,

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Speaker 3: and that's all there really is to it. And it's

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Speaker 3: been very nice, like we have very high standards, but

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Speaker 3: at the same time, it's kind of like all of

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Speaker 3: the responsibility is on you, and you know, if you

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Speaker 3: don't perform well, at the end of the day, ninety

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Speaker 3: nine percent of it is you. And I really like

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Speaker 3: that responsibility that the coach has given us. It's been

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Speaker 3: really nice. We haven't been like wrapped up in cotton

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Speaker 3: wool or a babied through any of it.

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Speaker 1: It's a fair bit of responsibility to take on to

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Speaker 1: go into a race with that level of pressure. And

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Speaker 1: I guess being an individual athlete first, being a team athlete,

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Speaker 1: how do you find going into races that you deal

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Speaker 1: with that pressure knowing you've obviously put in all the

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Speaker 1: work and all the preparation.

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Speaker 3: It's like, pressure is such a funny thing. I remember

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Speaker 3: going into the London Games and I know that I'd

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Speaker 3: done a heap of work going into the race, so

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Speaker 3: when I stood up on the blox, I was so confident.

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Speaker 3: And then I was at like a state championships for

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Speaker 3: my school the year after, and I was so nervous

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Speaker 3: and I was like, why am I feeling no more

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Speaker 3: nervous about this in the Paralympics. Yeah, And so I think,

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Speaker 3: you know, just learning how to manage the pressure is

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Speaker 3: one huge part of being an elite athlete, and that's

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Speaker 3: one thing that I love. I get to watch the

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Speaker 3: Olympics before I go to the Paralympics. So I watched

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Speaker 3: you guys when you're gold medal. I actually got all

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Speaker 3: my kids out of the pool I was coaching to

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Speaker 3: watch it.

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Speaker 2: Oh that's awesome.

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Speaker 3: It's just a little side, no pressure. But the one

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Speaker 3: thing I love about watching the Olympics is like all

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Speaker 3: of the athletes there are so fit and there's not

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Speaker 3: much separating them in terms of like their physicality. But

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Speaker 3: then when you see them like other you know, before

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Speaker 3: their game or before their race, and some of them

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Speaker 3: are handling the pressure a lot better than others. You

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Speaker 3: can like sometimes see people just crumbling before it's even

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Speaker 3: bigun And I think that's the differentiating fact that at

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Speaker 3: the Olympics, and that's why like Olympians are so impressive,

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Speaker 3: because they're so sharp in their mind and their body

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Speaker 3: and so yeah, dealing with pressure and the mental side

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Speaker 3: of sport is I think a really important angle that

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Speaker 3: athletes need to think about. It's not just your physical training.

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Speaker 3: And I think they know that's something that can start

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Speaker 3: from a really young age and what a lot of

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Speaker 3: development coaches may not not necessarily focus on. But you know,

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Speaker 3: if you're training for the Olympics, the end goal is

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Speaker 3: that you have to beat stuff in your mind as well.

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Speaker 2: See.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of the Paralympics, it was an incredible

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Speaker 1: doco that came out on Netflix in twenty twenty, Rising Phoenix.

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Speaker 1: If anyone hasn't seen it, I could highly recommend It's

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Speaker 1: probably my favorite documentary that I've ever seen. It was

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Speaker 1: incredible to see the stories of so many Paralympic athletes

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Speaker 1: and everything they've been through, and you were a big

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Speaker 1: feature in that doco. What did it feel like to

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Speaker 1: even first get the call up to be part of

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Speaker 1: a Netflix documentary.

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Speaker 3: Well, firstly, if they made a documentary about the sevens Girls,

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Speaker 3: I think it would be my favorite.

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Speaker 2: Oh. Thanks.

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Speaker 3: Well, when I had the call up for a Rising Phoenix,

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Speaker 3: actually I didn't really understand what the concept to us about.

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Speaker 3: They said, there's going to be this documentary and it's

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Speaker 3: going to be about the Paralympics, and Prince Harry is

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Speaker 3: going to be in it, and I was.

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Speaker 2: Like, okay, I'll do it, yes, just for Prince Harry.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So at that stage you know, it hadn't even

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Speaker 3: been signed by Netflix, but I knew that the International

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Speaker 3: Paralympic Committee had put a lot of work behind the

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Speaker 3: documentary going ahead, and so I really wanted to be

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Speaker 3: a part of it because obviously I've done a lot

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Speaker 3: of work with the guys over in Germany with the

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Speaker 3: International Paralympic Committee, and so I kind of just did

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Speaker 3: the filming and they said that they were going to

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Speaker 3: try and get it on Netflix, and I was thinking, okay,

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Speaker 3: I bet you. Like I felt like they were just

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Speaker 3: saying that, you know, you kind of pumping up their

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Speaker 3: own tires to make them cells feel a bit better.

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Speaker 3: And then yeah, a couple of months ago it landed

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Speaker 3: on Netflix. I can't believe it. Well, okay, that actually happened. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: But the fascinating thing was, I think the day after

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Speaker 3: it launched, like all of the messages I was getting

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Speaker 3: from all across the world about how people didn't really

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Speaker 3: know about the struggles that we went through, particularly get

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Speaker 3: to get to Rio and all the funding problems that

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Speaker 3: the Paralympics had, and you know how the London twenty

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Speaker 3: twelve Games completely changed the landscape, Like it was just

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Speaker 3: a really educational documentary for people, and they really enjoyed it.

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Speaker 3: But I actually liked watching it for the first time

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Speaker 3: because there was a lot of home video in there

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Speaker 3: that I'd never seen before. And so there's like a

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Speaker 3: video in there of me a few days after I

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Speaker 3: had my leg amputated from cancer and the nurse, I've

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Speaker 3: never heard the audio before, but the nurse said that, well, no,

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Speaker 3: my mom told the nurse Ellie just wants her foot back,

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Speaker 3: And that really hit me in the heart because I

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Speaker 3: don't know, I think I carry a little bit of

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Speaker 3: PTSD from my cancer journey, Like I get really upset

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Speaker 3: easily talking about it with people, so obviously there's something

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Speaker 3: still there. But yeah, seeing that really got me. And

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Speaker 3: then a few takes later, seeing my mum's reaction after

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Speaker 3: I'd won my first gold medal, I'd never seen that before.

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Speaker 1: Wow.

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Speaker 3: So it's like the whole world was watching it for

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Speaker 3: the first time with me, which was a strange way

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Speaker 3: to watch your own home videos. It was kind of cool.

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Speaker 3: So I think just seeing the positive reaction that people

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Speaker 3: have had, and you know, I've been trying to tell

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Speaker 3: everybody for years about how amazing Paralympic athletes are and

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Speaker 3: people have gotten to see that through eight or nine

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Speaker 3: different Paralympic stories on Rising Phoenix. It's like everyone's finally

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Speaker 3: understanding that it's not just about the sport. And you know,

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Speaker 3: the athletes, they've got incredible backstories and we have a

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Speaker 3: lot to land from them as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, there's this incredible scene that you're in a new

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Speaker 1: are you in like a huge fish tank or something

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Speaker 1: like that.

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Speaker 2: It's amazing. How did that set up work?

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Speaker 3: Well? I I was actually, we're going to be honest,

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Speaker 3: a horrible day of filming.

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Speaker 2: Oh no, it looks flamorous.

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Speaker 3: It did.

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Speaker 1: So.

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Speaker 3: I just finished like an eight day World Championship competition

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Speaker 3: and they took me to like some random filming studio

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Speaker 3: an hour out of London and anyway, they took me

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Speaker 3: into this. It was it was a giant fish tank

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Speaker 3: with windows and basically the way to shoot that scene

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Speaker 3: was that they had to pull me down by my ankle,

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Speaker 3: was like with scuba divers and my breath, pop my

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Speaker 3: ears and then like just look relaxed under the water.

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Speaker 3: Yeah easy, I just did that for eight hours. Wow.

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Speaker 3: I saw the shots after we finished filming that that afternoon,

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Speaker 3: and they did look amazing, Like how many people get

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Speaker 3: to wear like a shiny gold swimming suit and just

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Speaker 3: look really glamorous underwater. I can say, you know, the

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Speaker 3: pain was worth it? Yeah, nice, And the documentary was incredible. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: it was amazing.

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Speaker 1: So going back to childhood, you touched on it before

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Speaker 1: about when you were really young had your leg amputated

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Speaker 1: from cancer, and not too long after that, how was

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Speaker 1: it that you got involved in swimming, got into the pool.

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Speaker 3: Ah, well, with swimming, you know a lot of people

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Speaker 3: are acquiring new disability start swimming for rehabilitation, and it

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Speaker 3: was really similar for me. And I always loved the

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Speaker 3: water as a kid, So when I had my leg amputated,

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Speaker 3: the doctors suggested swimming to learn how to use my

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Speaker 3: body again. And I had a twin sister, so that

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Speaker 3: was really great because she would jump in and I

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Speaker 3: would try and chase her, and yeah, still love the

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Speaker 3: water even one leg was two and it was a

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Speaker 3: really great way for me to learn to use my

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Speaker 3: body again. You know, the low impact of swimming is

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Speaker 3: really great for recovering from injuries. You've probably done it yourself, yes,

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Speaker 3: So yeah, that's just kind of how I started swimming.

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Speaker 3: And then if you live in Australia. I grew up

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Speaker 3: on the beach, so you had to learn how to

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Speaker 3: swim anyway and to kind of just kept going. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: And then when I graduated from my learned to Swim program,

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Speaker 3: I just started squad swimming and I still didn't know

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Speaker 3: about the Paralympics and love swimming still and just tried

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Speaker 3: to beat everybody in my squad. And I was the

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Speaker 3: only kid there with one leg. I was like, you're

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Speaker 3: all going down. I don't care, you're all going down.

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Speaker 3: And then I found myself on my first Australian swim

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Speaker 3: team at fourteen, just from like trying to beat everybody else.

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Speaker 3: It was crazy to look back on.

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Speaker 2: Actually that's incredible.

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Speaker 1: So fourteen years old and you kind of worked your

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Speaker 1: way up the ranks and then received a scholarship to

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Speaker 1: the Australian Institute of Sport. How old were you when

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Speaker 1: you first moved to Canberra to join that program?

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Speaker 3: I well, actually I didn't move to the AIS until

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Speaker 3: I finished high school. Okay, so I would have been

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Speaker 3: eighteen or nineteen, But at that time I was only

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Speaker 3: eighteen or nineteen, like I said, And so basically my

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Speaker 3: life consisted of going to this place called Mooseheads on

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Speaker 3: Saturday night.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very well known people came from.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, people say, you cut it loose at the Moose

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Speaker 3: this weekend, and so I did. I Like, looking back,

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Speaker 3: I'm really happy that I got to live through those

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Speaker 3: years of having a lot of fun with my friends.

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Speaker 3: But at the same time, I wasted so much opportunity

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Speaker 3: there for a year or two. So it's like a

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Speaker 3: bit of a double edged sword, like I did get

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Speaker 3: to live a really great life, but at the same time,

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Speaker 3: I did waste a lot of opportunity. But there was

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Speaker 3: this almost this like one moment when I was at

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Speaker 3: the Aos where a light bulb just clicked and I

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Speaker 3: knew that the London Games were coming up. I think

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Speaker 3: I had about a year and a half to repair

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Speaker 3: but prepare about that stage and it's like all guns

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Speaker 3: going towards London. I did never miss a training session

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Speaker 3: after that. I only drank water and yeah, I was

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Speaker 3: probably like a straight a athlete kind of thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: and I'm really proud that I could make that transition

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Speaker 3: and realized that I was wasting an opportunity turn that around.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So looking at your first paralymp pics in Beijing

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Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight. What was that experience like?

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Speaker 1: Heading in to your very first paralymp pics?

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Speaker 3: I was sixteen. Do you remember anything when you were sixteen?

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Speaker 2: Not really.

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Speaker 1: I struggled to remember things even more recently than that.

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Speaker 1: It's a long time ago.

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Speaker 2: How recently were you have for breakfast Turkish bread?

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Speaker 1: Oh that's not great, Like, you know, a bit of

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Speaker 1: toasted Turkish bread with butter and vegimite ew.

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Speaker 3: Vega might only lightly. I tried mamine the other day.

336
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Speaker 3: But anyway, back to Beijing, I don't remember anything all right.

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Speaker 3: I actually do have one memory of nothing about the competition,

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Speaker 3: but circling around Beijing after the competition had finished with

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Speaker 3: one of my friends, Blake Cochrane, who is still on

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Speaker 3: the SIM team with me, and I was showing him

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Speaker 3: that I could do like some kind of sick WHEELI

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Speaker 3: thing on my bike and I ended up hitting this

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Speaker 3: gut I and going over my handlebars and falling into

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Speaker 3: this big mud puddle, trying to walk back through like

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Speaker 3: the athletes village gates like security just govern in dirty mud.

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Speaker 3: Who knows what was in it?

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Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I'm glad that that's the event.

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Speaker 3: Like nuclear waste or something tells my leg it's no,

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Speaker 3: that's the only memory that I have of Beijing. So

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Speaker 3: I actually took a video camera with me to London

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Speaker 3: because I knew that I don't know, when you get

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Speaker 3: to a game that's so overwhelming and there's so much

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Speaker 3: going on that you don't really take anything in, and

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Speaker 3: so heading into the London games, I took a video

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Speaker 3: camera and I think I took about fifteen hours of

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Speaker 3: video footage.

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Speaker 2: I like that idea.

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Speaker 3: Because I knew that it's something that I never wanted

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Speaker 3: to forget and like memories that I would look back

360
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Speaker 3: on in thirty years time, and a video camera always

361
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Speaker 3: helps with those. Back then, it was like a handheld

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Speaker 3: camcorder on tape. Though back in the day, I know

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Speaker 3: I can say back in the day, with my discman

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Speaker 3: and my camp.

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Speaker 1: Card, it's how good coming back from Beijing. You talked

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Speaker 1: about becoming more of a straight a athlete getting ready

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Speaker 1: for London.

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Speaker 2: What was that?

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Speaker 1: What kind of was able to have flicked the switch

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Speaker 1: for you to make that decision that you wanted to

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Speaker 1: go hard and put everything into play so that you

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Speaker 1: could perform at your best for London twenty twelve.

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Speaker 3: Well, I had a really great competitor in Natalie Dutois

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Speaker 3: from South Africa. She was the Michael Phelps of Paralympics.

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Speaker 3: I mean she actually went to the Beijing Olympics down

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Speaker 3: the Paralympics, which is very rare. So she's a very

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Speaker 3: good swimmer. So she represented South Africa at the Olympics

378
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Speaker 3: as well, and obviously she was going to be a

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Speaker 3: hard one to beat. When I was sixteen, I didn't

380
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Speaker 3: think that I could beat her, and so I kind

381
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Speaker 3: of went to Beijing to experience what a Paralympics was. Like,

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Speaker 3: I think you're about two years before London. I realized

383
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Speaker 3: that I had a chance of beating her, and it

384
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Speaker 3: was going to be her last ever competition was London

385
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Speaker 3: twenty twelve, and so I knew that was going to

386
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Speaker 3: be the last chance if I ever wanted to beat

387
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Speaker 3: my childhood hero. And I think that's probably what flicked

388
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Speaker 3: the sweet's. Like every laugh that I did, I would

389
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Speaker 3: think about Natalie and like making sure that I did

390
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Speaker 3: everything better than she would. I Like, you eat that

391
00:18:07,800 --> 00:18:10,720
Speaker 3: chocolate bar? Would Natalie eat that chocolate bar? Don't eat

392
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Speaker 3: that chocolate bar. I was motivated, Yeah, I was like

393
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Speaker 3: like Laser focused on just beating her, but I think

394
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Speaker 3: I really struggled with that. I did beat her in London,

395
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Speaker 3: but I think going into the Rio Games, I really

396
00:18:22,800 --> 00:18:26,159
Speaker 3: struggled being like the best athlete and having people chase me.

397
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Speaker 3: I wasn't used to that m So I really enjoy

398
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Speaker 3: being the underdog. And I think that's why I like

399
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Speaker 3: chraining with Kate and Bronti because I'll probably actually when

400
00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:36,360
Speaker 3: I say I probably won't, I will never beat them.

401
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Speaker 3: But I still like saying, hey, Brontia, I'm gonna get

402
00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:40,520
Speaker 3: you on this one. Yeah.

403
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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's something special about being the underdog.

404
00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:46,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it is great. Maybe it's just like the

405
00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:50,080
Speaker 3: lower expectations and like you've got so far to go

406
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Speaker 3: ahead of you as well.

407
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Speaker 1: Like I don't know, yeah, And I like the idea

408
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Speaker 1: that the other person has the pressure on them, like

409
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Speaker 1: it's kind of up to them to not get it done,

410
00:18:58,560 --> 00:19:00,639
Speaker 1: whereas if you're the underdog, it's like you can just

411
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Speaker 1: come out and do your best on the day and

412
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Speaker 1: try and get it done.

413
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Speaker 3: Yeah. But I think that I learned about a lot

414
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Speaker 3: a lot about myself in rear with pressure and not

415
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Speaker 3: being the underdog anymore. And having all of the pressure

416
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Speaker 3: on me. So that was a really great learning curve

417
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Speaker 3: for me too, and you know, part of developing as

418
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Speaker 3: an athlete in Tokyo. Hopefully it'll be better at it.

419
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Speaker 1: Yes, we've skipped over your success in London, so you

420
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Speaker 1: have to we don't have to spend too long on it.

421
00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:31,359
Speaker 1: But you had an incredible run, including four Paralympic golds

422
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Speaker 1: and two silvers. That feeling of winning your first gold medal,

423
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Speaker 1: I've heard you describe it as relief, which I found

424
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Speaker 1: quite interesting because that's the same way that I described

425
00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:45,360
Speaker 1: it after we won Golden Rio. Really yeah, and it

426
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Speaker 1: was like the culmination of years. Like I was seven

427
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Speaker 1: years old when I decided I wanted to win an

428
00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:51,680
Speaker 1: Olympic gold medal, and it was just years and years,

429
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Speaker 1: And I just remember when So New Zealand in our

430
00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:56,360
Speaker 1: game scored after the buzzer, but we were far enough

431
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Speaker 1: ahead that we still won the game. And I just

432
00:19:57,680 --> 00:20:00,760
Speaker 1: remember this, this flooding feeling of relief. Actually did it,

433
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Speaker 1: Like it's done. It's something that I wanted to do

434
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:04,960
Speaker 1: for so long and it's just it's finally happened.

435
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:06,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you don't think it's going to be relief. Dear,

436
00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:10,399
Speaker 3: Like people like you watch you know, your heroes winning

437
00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:12,879
Speaker 3: gold medals on the TV when you're a kid, and

438
00:20:12,920 --> 00:20:15,679
Speaker 3: it just looks like pure excitement. But I've actually they

439
00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:18,879
Speaker 3: probably felt relief tear, yeah, which is I think a

440
00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:20,600
Speaker 3: little bit of a shame. It kind of just goes

441
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:22,600
Speaker 3: to show that the pressure that the athletes are under

442
00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:24,520
Speaker 3: if they're winning, you know that that's probably going to

443
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:26,439
Speaker 3: be the pinnacle of their career, and they're just feeling

444
00:20:26,520 --> 00:20:30,720
Speaker 3: relief that they've done it and you know you're always

445
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:32,800
Speaker 3: going to be a gold medalist, which is really nice.

446
00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:33,280
Speaker 2: Yeah.

447
00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:36,159
Speaker 1: I loved reading this story where you talked about when

448
00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:38,240
Speaker 1: you went to an ice skating rink not long after

449
00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:40,639
Speaker 1: coming back from London and you saw, I think you

450
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:42,800
Speaker 1: saw a little girl who was skating around and she

451
00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:45,919
Speaker 1: was pretty incredible at it, and you describe having a

452
00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:48,160
Speaker 1: moment of almost wanting to tell her that she could

453
00:20:48,160 --> 00:20:50,159
Speaker 1: win an Olympic gold medal, and then you had the

454
00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:53,600
Speaker 1: realization of, Hey, I've actually won a gold medal, Like that.

455
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:55,399
Speaker 2: Happened to me. Can you tell me a little bit

456
00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:56,800
Speaker 2: about do you remember that moment?

457
00:20:56,880 --> 00:20:57,000
Speaker 1: Oh?

458
00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:00,879
Speaker 3: I just got grease bumps thinking about that. Yeah, that

459
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:03,119
Speaker 3: was a really interesting moment for me. I think I

460
00:21:04,080 --> 00:21:06,200
Speaker 3: just come back from the London Games and I had

461
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:09,000
Speaker 3: two shoulder reconstructions, and I actually had quite a terrible

462
00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:12,760
Speaker 3: time emotionally going into the London Paralympics. So by the

463
00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:14,960
Speaker 3: time that I came back from the Games, I had

464
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:16,879
Speaker 3: I didn't want anything to do with the sport. I

465
00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:19,440
Speaker 3: didn't even want anything like any athlete friends or anything.

466
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,560
Speaker 3: I just wanted to get out. And so it took

467
00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:24,320
Speaker 3: me a long time to be able to even think

468
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:27,199
Speaker 3: about sport again. And I just I went to you

469
00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:29,639
Speaker 3: an ice skating rink at Macquarie Park in Sydney, and

470
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:31,480
Speaker 3: I saw this little girl and she was so young.

471
00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:34,600
Speaker 3: She was being taught by some instructor and she was

472
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:38,520
Speaker 3: doing like flips, like twists, so not flips, imagine.

473
00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:41,080
Speaker 2: Doing a flip on the ice rink. She was real good.

474
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,280
Speaker 3: Flip triple twist. Please, you're not good enough. No, she

475
00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:47,200
Speaker 3: was doing like these amazing twists and like I can't

476
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:51,120
Speaker 3: even like stand still on the ice with that. Since

477
00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:52,879
Speaker 3: I was really impressed, and I remember I was just

478
00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:56,080
Speaker 3: watching her for ages and she looked so beautiful on

479
00:21:56,119 --> 00:21:58,320
Speaker 3: the ice. And then I was like, Wow, she's good

480
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:01,760
Speaker 3: enough to win an Olympic medal when she's older. I reckon,

481
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:04,520
Speaker 3: not that I don't know any standards device skating, but

482
00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:08,320
Speaker 3: I started getting really emotional because I wanted to tell her,

483
00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:10,080
Speaker 3: and I started crying on the side of the rink.

484
00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,879
Speaker 3: My friend came over, like why are you crying, and

485
00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:16,439
Speaker 3: I was like, she's so beautiful, She's so good, and

486
00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:17,160
Speaker 3: then I was like.

487
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:23,560
Speaker 2: I'm also really good. I won. Yeah, you did.

488
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,600
Speaker 3: And I think it took months for that to sink in,

489
00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:28,560
Speaker 3: and like that is the moment that it's sunk in

490
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:30,920
Speaker 3: for me, that like I'd won a gold medal because

491
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:32,600
Speaker 3: I just felt relief for so long, and then after

492
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,440
Speaker 3: I felt that relief, I felt like all this brahma

493
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,040
Speaker 3: towards me, and so I never really had that moment

494
00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:40,320
Speaker 3: like standing on the podium. For me, I couldn't really

495
00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:42,400
Speaker 3: switch off because I had to focus on another race,

496
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:44,600
Speaker 3: and so it took like two years for me to

497
00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,520
Speaker 3: sink in that I was a gold medalist. Wow, and

498
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:50,040
Speaker 3: it just hit me all at once. So h I

499
00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:51,960
Speaker 3: get it like a lot more emotional as I get older.

500
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:56,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feelure now for a quick half time break

501
00:22:56,359 --> 00:22:58,960
Speaker 1: workplace Law is a law firm focused on supporting and

502
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,479
Speaker 1: empowering FEMA athletes to take control of their careers. If

503
00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:04,400
Speaker 1: you can't afford an agent or would like to manage

504
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:06,879
Speaker 1: your own career, Workplace Law would love to help you.

505
00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:10,440
Speaker 1: They provide female athletes with guidance through the complexities of

506
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:16,440
Speaker 1: player contracts, negotiations and sponsorship agreements, personal brand building, mentoring

507
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,560
Speaker 1: with on and off field careers, crisis management, and work

508
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,399
Speaker 1: with individuals to ensure they respond to incidents and media

509
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:26,240
Speaker 1: stories in an appropriate manner, and advice and representation in

510
00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:30,960
Speaker 1: disciplinary hearings and tribunals. Find out more at www dot

511
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,360
Speaker 1: Workplace Law dot com dot au. Tell me a bit

512
00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:37,840
Speaker 1: about the shoulder reconstructions that you had to have after London.

513
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:41,760
Speaker 3: Well, I was swimming at the AIS before I headed

514
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:44,199
Speaker 3: over to London, and we were swimming like sixty to

515
00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:47,239
Speaker 3: eighty k a week, which is a fair amount, and

516
00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:49,720
Speaker 3: you got to think of the amount of shoulder revolutions

517
00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:52,520
Speaker 3: then that takes. And I think it was about twelve

518
00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,560
Speaker 3: months before the Games I started getting really bad shoulder pain.

519
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 3: I think I had a really heavy week in the

520
00:23:57,640 --> 00:23:59,240
Speaker 3: pool and the gym, and then all of a sudden,

521
00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:02,639
Speaker 3: my shoulders started hurting, and my coach at the time,

522
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:04,760
Speaker 3: he was almost like he had this win. It all

523
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 3: costs mentality, and so I trained through the pain for months,

524
00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 3: and then I was seeing the physio after every training

525
00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 3: session and she was just trying to get me through

526
00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:18,920
Speaker 3: the next session. Yeah, and then it got to the point.

527
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:21,359
Speaker 3: I remember I couldn't wash my own hair in the

528
00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:23,680
Speaker 3: shower because I couldn't lift my arms up. But then

529
00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 3: I was expected to come back and swim five or

530
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:29,000
Speaker 3: six or seven or eight kilometers that night. And then

531
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:31,000
Speaker 3: I remember I was sitting on an exercise bike and

532
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:32,680
Speaker 3: I got so hot, but I couldn't take my own

533
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:35,399
Speaker 3: jacket off because I just couldn't move my arms. And

534
00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:38,119
Speaker 3: I was swimming through that, and I think, you know,

535
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:41,080
Speaker 3: when you're putting yourself through that much pain for four

536
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,160
Speaker 3: or six hours a day, it took a really bad

537
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 3: toll on me mentally, and I just I just wanted

538
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:47,600
Speaker 3: to get to the Games. But after that, I didn't

539
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,280
Speaker 3: want anything to do with swimming, you know, fair enough,

540
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:53,439
Speaker 3: So when I got back from the London Games, I

541
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,399
Speaker 3: had my shoulders looked at by a surgeon and basically

542
00:24:57,040 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 3: my bicep tendons were all torn up, and then they

543
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:02,880
Speaker 3: were getting really tight and they were peeling the cartilage

544
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 3: off my shoulders. And so when I realized that I

545
00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 3: wanted to swim again a few years later, I had to.

546
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 3: They had to get in there and stitch it all

547
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,000
Speaker 3: up and then staple my labor and back onto my shoulders.

548
00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:15,480
Speaker 3: And then he tightened my left capsule while I was

549
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:18,040
Speaker 3: in the surgery, my left shoulder capsule. But he didn't

550
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:19,080
Speaker 3: tell me he was going to do that, and I

551
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 3: kind of wish that he didn't because it took away

552
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:23,240
Speaker 3: like my back showkability a little bit. Right, Okay, why

553
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:25,200
Speaker 3: did you do that? He said, it's good for your shoulders.

554
00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 3: I was like, but it's bad for my swimming. Yeah. No, okay,

555
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,359
Speaker 3: So that was interesting. I'd be walking down the street

556
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:34,960
Speaker 3: and it'd have my arms in a sling and a

557
00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:39,399
Speaker 3: prosthetic leg and more like what happened to you? And

558
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:42,200
Speaker 3: they would believe me as much. I think if I

559
00:25:42,200 --> 00:25:45,359
Speaker 3: said I fell out of an aeroplane. Mmm, But I

560
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:47,240
Speaker 3: just said I was just a swimming injury. I'm like,

561
00:25:47,280 --> 00:25:51,359
Speaker 3: oh god, I'm never swinging im that happens to me.

562
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:53,119
Speaker 1: I'm never swimming and you had a bit of a

563
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:54,760
Speaker 1: stinter wheelchair basketball.

564
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:56,719
Speaker 2: Yes, how did that go for you? And how did

565
00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:57,399
Speaker 2: that come about?

566
00:25:57,720 --> 00:25:59,600
Speaker 3: Well, actually, I wouldn't mind talking to you about that,

567
00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 3: because but that came about three mutual friends. There were

568
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:07,920
Speaker 3: wheelchair basketball players and I had I was done with swimming.

569
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:11,359
Speaker 3: I wanted to kind of try something new, and so

570
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:15,240
Speaker 3: they invited me to this wheelchair basketball event at Narrowbeene.

571
00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:17,959
Speaker 3: Actually okay, So I went and I played there for

572
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 3: the weekend and I loved it. And then they invited

573
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:24,040
Speaker 3: me to be part of the Victorian basketball squad WHOA,

574
00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:27,359
Speaker 3: which was quite funny because I'm terrible at basketball, but

575
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:30,119
Speaker 3: I was really ultra competitive and I was quite strong

576
00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:32,120
Speaker 3: from swimming in my shoulders like a push a chair

577
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:35,480
Speaker 3: really quickly. And I remember one basketball game they put

578
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:39,680
Speaker 3: me up against this really fast wheelchair pusher, like Ellie,

579
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:41,159
Speaker 3: you have to stay on her, do not let her

580
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,080
Speaker 3: get down to the other end of the court. Anyway,

581
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 3: I'm changing her up and down. I got off the

582
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:46,680
Speaker 3: court and I was like, heh, where is this check

583
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:48,159
Speaker 3: that you put me up against? Like I could not

584
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:51,160
Speaker 3: keep up with her, Like she's so fast, Like that's

585
00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:54,440
Speaker 3: Louise savage, and I was like, oh, that's what I said.

586
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:59,240
Speaker 3: I said, you're getting your guy expected to get well.

587
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:01,159
Speaker 3: A lot of things you can do, just push her

588
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:03,600
Speaker 3: out of her chair. No, but I didn't do that

589
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 3: because she's always savage.

590
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, she is an Australian icon.

591
00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 3: So that was really funny. Also, I have about a

592
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:14,480
Speaker 3: three percent shooting accuracy. But one thing that I actually

593
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:16,240
Speaker 3: struggled with this which is what I wanted to talk

594
00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:18,440
Speaker 3: to you about. I'm not really pumping myself up here,

595
00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 3: was working in a team environment as opposed to like

596
00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:26,280
Speaker 3: a single sport. The insumming you're so focused on yourself

597
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:28,160
Speaker 3: and you have your face in the water, you can't

598
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 3: even hear anything. It's like all in your mind. And

599
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:32,880
Speaker 3: then all of a sudden I went into a team sport.

600
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 3: I had to learn about strategy, What's that I had

601
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:41,440
Speaker 3: to learn about, like court placement, what's that communication? What's

602
00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:43,880
Speaker 3: that kind of thing? And it just through a whole new,

603
00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:46,679
Speaker 3: like ten thousand new spanner in the works for me.

604
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 3: And I remember coming off the court of my first

605
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 3: game and being like, I have a newfound respect for

606
00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 3: a team sport athletes, Like it's unbelievable.

607
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:57,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty demanding in that sense, and I think

608
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 1: an interesting element is I know for me, I find,

609
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:02,960
Speaker 1: particularly when I'm playing sevens, I can barely breathe, like

610
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 1: running around just dying on the field, and then I've

611
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,359
Speaker 1: got to be able to talk and communicate to my

612
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:10,359
Speaker 1: teammates around me. I think that's an interesting element that

613
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:11,880
Speaker 1: is a big part of it, and we talk about

614
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 1: it almost every day, draining how important it is, because

615
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:16,600
Speaker 1: I think that's probably the first thing to go when

616
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 1: people start to get tired. You kind of just go

617
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:20,160
Speaker 1: in your own shell a little bit, but you can't

618
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:20,920
Speaker 1: in a team sport.

619
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:22,119
Speaker 2: You just can't afford to do that.

620
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:25,600
Speaker 3: I know, it's amazing, So hats off to you guys.

621
00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 2: Thank you.

622
00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 3: It's really hard, but I want to give it another crack.

623
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:32,439
Speaker 3: After Tokyo. I still got my basketball chair. It's like

624
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 3: covered in cobwebs. But I don't think I want to

625
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:38,960
Speaker 3: do it like too professionally. Just learning how to play

626
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,040
Speaker 3: team sport and all of that. I really enjoy that aspect.

627
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:45,960
Speaker 3: It's just like a whole extra element that we summers

628
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:46,920
Speaker 3: don't think about.

629
00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:48,120
Speaker 2: That's really cool.

630
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:51,840
Speaker 1: I wanted to play you an audio clip from twenty

631
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 1: to fifteen the World Champs. So it's from the one

632
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 1: hundred meters backstroke s nine.

633
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 3: Well, no one that she's over them because Ellie Cool

634
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:05,120
Speaker 3: has just smashed that time. I would of say one

635
00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:08,959
Speaker 3: away point eight nine. Stephanie Dixon has held the world

636
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 3: record since way back. Oh goodness. The existing record stands

637
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:17,240
Speaker 3: at one to nine point three zero from Beijing, but

638
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 3: Stephanie Dixon held up from many years before. But Ellie

639
00:29:21,080 --> 00:29:24,920
Speaker 3: Cool Australia has claimed a new world record in the

640
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:27,200
Speaker 3: women's one hundred backstalk s nine.

641
00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,360
Speaker 1: I love the commentator's accident in that one. So in

642
00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 1: that event, you came back and you actually broke the

643
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 1: world record. So after having double shoulder reconstruction, thinking about

644
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:41,120
Speaker 1: retiring from swimming all together, what did that feel like

645
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:42,480
Speaker 1: to come back and achieve that?

646
00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 2: It was?

647
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,600
Speaker 3: That was yeah, I don't even know how to explain that,

648
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:51,320
Speaker 3: like what that felt like because I'd just come out

649
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,719
Speaker 3: of shoulder reconstructions like you mentioned. And I remember right

650
00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:57,240
Speaker 3: before that race, I saw my coage and he had

651
00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:00,400
Speaker 3: no like we had no expectations. We're like, yeah, let's

652
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:02,680
Speaker 3: just get through this. You know, Rio's next year. And

653
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 3: so he said to me, just this is his race plan.

654
00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:07,720
Speaker 3: Go out in the first fifty and then if you

655
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 3: feel really good, just come back as hard as you can.

656
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,200
Speaker 3: You know, got to UNI for four years to tell

657
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 3: me that advice, and I was like, all right, I'll

658
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 3: just do that. And I felt really good and it

659
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:20,800
Speaker 3: was like two seconds faster than pretty much what I'd

660
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:22,520
Speaker 3: ever swung before, and I felt like I was in

661
00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:25,360
Speaker 3: the same times as I usually did. Say, Okay, seeing

662
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 3: that time was a really big shock, But it probably

663
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,680
Speaker 3: confused me more than anything because the training that I'd

664
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 3: done leading into that competition was very different to what

665
00:30:36,880 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 3: anybody else had ever done before. You know, I was

666
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:42,720
Speaker 3: training for rehabilitation more than anything. Also, I didn't have

667
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:45,520
Speaker 3: any pressure going into the race. And yeah, it just

668
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,120
Speaker 3: made me question everything, like what I'd been doing over

669
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,200
Speaker 3: the last eight years, What can i do differently heading

670
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:54,560
Speaker 3: into Rio? And then yeah, that whole extra element around

671
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 3: taking pressure off myself because I swim so much better

672
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:03,320
Speaker 3: when I'm just enjoying myself and having fun. Yeah, So yeah,

673
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:07,200
Speaker 3: I don't know, it just makes me question everything. I'm

674
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:10,160
Speaker 3: still questioned again. So actually I was thinking about it

675
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 3: yesterday with the whole pressure thing. And just enjoying yourself.

676
00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:16,680
Speaker 3: You know, I've been to three Paralympics now, and I've

677
00:31:16,800 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 3: learned a lot of each time I've gone about, you know,

678
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 3: the different elements of being an athlete, and like, I've

679
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 3: won Paralympic gold medals and I've broken the world records,

680
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:30,280
Speaker 3: and they're like not the things that I'm most proud about,

681
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 3: or they're not really the things that have made me

682
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:36,680
Speaker 3: like the happiest outside of the pool. All of the

683
00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 3: times where I've broken the world records or one gold medals,

684
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 3: I've actually been extremely unhappy as an athlete. And you know,

685
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:46,360
Speaker 3: now going into the Tokyo Games, I'm finally at a

686
00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:48,520
Speaker 3: point in my training where I'm just like so happy.

687
00:31:48,600 --> 00:31:51,360
Speaker 3: I love swimming like I love it. I can't believe

688
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 3: I'm saying that at twenty eight, and like I'm way

689
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 3: more proud of myself and in a better place than

690
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,920
Speaker 3: I was back then. And it's kind of like, yeah,

691
00:32:01,160 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 3: being happy as an athlete and as a person outside

692
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 3: of the poor is way better than winning gold battles

693
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 3: for me. And so it's taken me a long time

694
00:32:10,280 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 3: to get to that point. I think a lot of

695
00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 3: people retire before they get to that point. But yeah,

696
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 3: I'm really enjoying myself.

697
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:17,239
Speaker 2: That's really cool. I'm very glad that you've got to

698
00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:17,720
Speaker 2: that point.

699
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:22,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, looking at Tokyo, what would you define as a

700
00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:24,360
Speaker 1: success when you when you get there? Is it the

701
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,240
Speaker 1: fact the fact that you want to enjoy yourself and

702
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:27,640
Speaker 1: swim PB times?

703
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 2: What does it? What does it look like for you?

704
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 3: For me, I'm now training for a distance event solely

705
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 3: on that, and I'm actually I did my first PV

706
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 3: in five years last weekend.

707
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 2: Wow.

708
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:40,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's massive, which kind of shows that you know

709
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 3: the happiness angle really well. And so like I'm really

710
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:46,560
Speaker 3: excited over the next six to eight months to be

711
00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:51,320
Speaker 3: working on getting that time down. I think to swimmer PB,

712
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 3: you know, after being in the sport for like eighteen years,

713
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 3: would be like you can't really beat that, and like

714
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 3: that's that's the other thing. Assuming like I could do

715
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 3: a personal best time, how can I be disappointed that

716
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 3: if it's like a silver metal or a bronze metal

717
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,680
Speaker 3: or anything. So that's like the most important thing for

718
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:10,360
Speaker 3: me is the swimmer PEB. But of course I want

719
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:12,640
Speaker 3: to beat everyone in the forest. Well, yeah, like I

720
00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:15,240
Speaker 3: really would love to finish on a gold medal. Yeah,

721
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 3: but it's just been such a crazy ride. And just

722
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:22,680
Speaker 3: I'm sure you know, to get to Tokyo. I think

723
00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 3: just standing there is going to be like quite emotional

724
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 3: for a lot of athletes, Like being there is going

725
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:29,360
Speaker 3: to be quite emotional for a lot of athletes. They

726
00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:32,680
Speaker 3: just want to take it all in and yeah and

727
00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 3: swimmer PB and make my family really proud.

728
00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:36,280
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love that.

729
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:39,840
Speaker 1: Every week on the show, I have a question from

730
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 1: a five year old and from my grandma. So let's

731
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:44,440
Speaker 1: do Grannie's question.

732
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 2: Hi, Ellie, you've overcome so many challenges. Where does your

733
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 2: strength come from?

734
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:52,400
Speaker 1: Wow?

735
00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:57,640
Speaker 3: She sounds like really confident and well rounded. I feel

736
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 3: like I need to speak better now, Where does my

737
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:06,320
Speaker 3: strength come from? I think for me, it's mostly been

738
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 3: about perspective throughout my whole life. I am so I

739
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:15,360
Speaker 3: feel so lucky that I am. Like the cancer that

740
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:20,520
Speaker 3: I had is really difficult cancer to treat, and there

741
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:23,319
Speaker 3: was a lot of kids and families who are in

742
00:34:23,320 --> 00:34:26,799
Speaker 3: my oncology ward, and you know, Mum and Dad got

743
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:29,759
Speaker 3: to know a lot of other like couples and their

744
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:33,040
Speaker 3: kids had passed away, Like while we're being treated together,

745
00:34:33,120 --> 00:34:37,120
Speaker 3: and kind of just thinking back to that time, I

746
00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:39,960
Speaker 3: just feel really lucky and so like that's one part

747
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 3: of it. You know, where that strength comes from is

748
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:48,000
Speaker 3: just being really grateful about being here. And then I

749
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 3: think the other part is the perspective of being around

750
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:58,719
Speaker 3: a lot of other athletes, especially like female athletes as

751
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:01,280
Speaker 3: well as Paralympic athletes. It's like in the Paralympic village.

752
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:05,360
Speaker 3: And if you know, when I was watching Rising Phoenix,

753
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:08,520
Speaker 3: I was kind of like, why am Like why is

754
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:10,839
Speaker 3: my story even being covered? Because I had boring old

755
00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:13,400
Speaker 3: cancer and like there's a guy here whose mum got

756
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:16,080
Speaker 3: murdered in front of him with a machete. You know,

757
00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:20,439
Speaker 3: you see like stories about the adversity that they've gone

758
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,799
Speaker 3: through and what they've gone through just even be able

759
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:26,080
Speaker 3: to play sport. And you know females are in that

760
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:31,360
Speaker 3: category as well, and yeah, just being grateful for that too.

761
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:35,040
Speaker 3: And yeah, I think this is a whole bunch of

762
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:37,879
Speaker 3: gratefulness being thrown in together. That makes sense.

763
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Granny would really love that answer. She's

764
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:41,959
Speaker 1: gonna like that one.

765
00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:42,479
Speaker 2: Yeah.

766
00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 1: Interesting, how you talk about the female athlete element and

767
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:49,880
Speaker 1: then the Paralympic element as well, how do you find

768
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:52,920
Speaker 1: like being part of what would be considered I guess

769
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,320
Speaker 1: those minority groups that often have to push through adversity

770
00:35:56,360 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 1: and fight for equality all of the time. Do you

771
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:02,920
Speaker 1: do you find that that is a burden on your

772
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:06,000
Speaker 1: Is it something that you, I guess enjoy being able

773
00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:09,480
Speaker 1: to promote that equality and how incredible you are as

774
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:10,760
Speaker 1: an athlete and as a person.

775
00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:13,440
Speaker 3: I think it's a bit of both, Like it is

776
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 3: a burden, but I also do really enjoy promoting it,

777
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:18,359
Speaker 3: particularly you know when how I was so aw rising

778
00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:21,080
Speaker 3: Phoenix was received, I really enjoyed that f of it.

779
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:24,640
Speaker 3: You know, it was interesting. I was listening to Leane

780
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:29,160
Speaker 3: Beachley speak last week about how she pushed for pro

781
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:32,360
Speaker 3: women's surfing and the struggles that she came across in

782
00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:35,120
Speaker 3: the boardroom. Yeah, and I was listening to it and

783
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:37,719
Speaker 3: I was like, Wow, that's unbelievable that she had to

784
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:41,239
Speaker 3: go through all of that. But then as a comparison,

785
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:44,400
Speaker 3: you know, the Paralympics are going through that right now,

786
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,799
Speaker 3: so you know, women's sports still has a long way

787
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 3: to go. It was, it is better than it was

788
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:52,440
Speaker 3: ten or fifteen years ago, but like Paralympic sport is

789
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:54,359
Speaker 3: almost like at the point where women's sport was ten

790
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:56,680
Speaker 3: or fifteen years ago, so it's being like part of

791
00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:59,880
Speaker 3: two different minority groups there. Yeah, I know that, like

792
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,399
Speaker 3: swimming is very good with the equity of the men

793
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:04,960
Speaker 3: and women's and actually probably one of the leading sports

794
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:08,319
Speaker 3: with Para and Olympic as well with their equality there.

795
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:12,160
Speaker 3: But yes, it's exhausting having to fight for it all

796
00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:15,440
Speaker 3: the time and to be told that you're not the

797
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:17,920
Speaker 3: same standard just because of who you are, like that

798
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:20,799
Speaker 3: is not a nice thing to say to anybody, particularly

799
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:22,680
Speaker 3: like you got to think of I always think of

800
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:24,839
Speaker 3: all the young girls coming up through sport, like just

801
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:28,120
Speaker 3: having all these crazy dreams, like wanting to change the

802
00:37:28,120 --> 00:37:32,080
Speaker 3: world being like presidents, prime ministers, astronauts, whatever, and then

803
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:33,919
Speaker 3: all of a sudden they're told that no, you can't

804
00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:35,879
Speaker 3: do that because you're a woman, Like I can't believe

805
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:40,640
Speaker 3: that we still live in that age. Yeah. So yeah, anyway,

806
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:43,040
Speaker 3: I know that things can change because I have seen it.

807
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 3: I have seen the parasport. Parasport sided things change really quickly,

808
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,640
Speaker 3: Like Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast was a great

809
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:56,200
Speaker 3: showcase for parasport for Australians. It's so cute I had

810
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:59,279
Speaker 3: heaps of young kids say they wanted to beat paralympians

811
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:01,800
Speaker 3: when they grew up, and like these kids had two legs,

812
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:07,319
Speaker 3: And I was like, yeah, just like you know, saying that,

813
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:11,000
Speaker 3: it's like a generation generational shift, I think. But yeah,

814
00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 3: the young kids, it's just what they're exposed to. They're

815
00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:16,920
Speaker 3: getting exposed to women's sport, and they're getting exposed to

816
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:20,359
Speaker 3: like people who are different. Yeah, and you know they're

817
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:23,040
Speaker 3: not questioning it at all, They're just understanding it. Like

818
00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:26,920
Speaker 3: kids are sending me pictures of thick figures and wheelchairs now,

819
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 3: and wow, you just got to think like they if

820
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:30,920
Speaker 3: they are accepting that as part of like a normal

821
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,839
Speaker 3: society at the age of five, I think it's it's

822
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 3: surely going to get better.

823
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, And I loved saying I think I saw

824
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:40,279
Speaker 1: on social media in twenty twenty, you got to visit

825
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:42,680
Speaker 1: a young girl by the name of Emily who's ten

826
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 1: years old. Can you tell me a little bit about

827
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:47,520
Speaker 1: that experience. You went and knocked on a door and

828
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:49,280
Speaker 1: gave her a bit of a surprise.

829
00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 3: A COVID safe surprise.

830
00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:52,960
Speaker 2: COVID safe surprise, of course.

831
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:56,560
Speaker 3: Yeah. Emily is an up and coming swimmer Emily Pratt.

832
00:38:56,600 --> 00:39:01,440
Speaker 3: She's very cheeky and her her parents obviously want to

833
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:04,399
Speaker 3: give rid the best opportunities that they can, and so

834
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:06,719
Speaker 3: she really looks up to you. A lot of our

835
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:10,920
Speaker 3: Paralympic swimming athletes and Swimming Australia arranged for me to

836
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:13,200
Speaker 3: go and just surprise her at her house. It was

837
00:39:13,239 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 3: really cute because I'd arranged it with her parents prior

838
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:17,640
Speaker 3: and I let them know that I was coming and

839
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,160
Speaker 3: what time i'd be there, and so they made sure

840
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 3: that she answered the door. And then when she did,

841
00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 3: she kind of just stood there like what's going on?

842
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:26,520
Speaker 3: And then it all kind of just thinks that I

843
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:29,520
Speaker 3: was standing there, and she got really excited. And anyway,

844
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:31,880
Speaker 3: her parents are asking me all about my swimming and everything,

845
00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:33,880
Speaker 3: and she was for a little while, but then she

846
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:36,239
Speaker 3: just wanted me to look at her little minecraft world.

847
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:38,239
Speaker 2: Love that.

848
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:40,040
Speaker 3: She's like, I've got a diamond sword. I was like,

849
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:41,439
Speaker 3: I don't know what that is, but that's cool.

850
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:45,839
Speaker 1: And so she swims in the same category as you. Yeah,

851
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:48,960
Speaker 1: and she's talking about hoping to go to the twenty

852
00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:50,440
Speaker 1: twenty four Paralympics.

853
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:53,319
Speaker 3: Oh thank god I'm retired. Because she's going to be good.

854
00:39:53,520 --> 00:39:59,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really cool. Next question from five year old Freda. Hi, Ellie,

855
00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:02,560
Speaker 1: howman take legs? Have you had in your wife?

856
00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:03,479
Speaker 2: So good?

857
00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:06,160
Speaker 3: I actually had a little girl at the supermarket yesterday.

858
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:08,719
Speaker 3: She's like, what's wrong with your leg and the check

859
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:12,799
Speaker 3: out and I said, oh, my leg got sick when

860
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:14,799
Speaker 3: I was little, so the doctors had to take it away.

861
00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:16,319
Speaker 3: And I was like, how old are you and she's

862
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 3: like I'm three and I was like, yo, my doctors

863
00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 3: had to take it away. And she's like, well, they

864
00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:22,000
Speaker 3: gave you a cool robot leg and I was like,

865
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 3: oh that's cute. Yeah. I've had a lot of legs, Freda. Actually,

866
00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:29,240
Speaker 3: so my first one was when I was three. Hel's

867
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,560
Speaker 3: three to five five, so it's a little bit more

868
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:34,560
Speaker 3: little than what yours would be, Frida. And then I

869
00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:37,160
Speaker 3: had to get a new one every year until I

870
00:40:37,200 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 3: was about sixteen, so the lot, it was a lot. Yeah,

871
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:43,920
Speaker 3: And now I only get them replaced every two or

872
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:46,480
Speaker 3: three years. So I don't know. Do the masks on

873
00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:49,560
Speaker 3: that you get mats I should be I'm going to

874
00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,760
Speaker 3: say six hundred, No, probably about twenty.

875
00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:53,600
Speaker 2: Wow.

876
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:57,839
Speaker 3: Yeah. I when I was younger, I had this friend

877
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:00,440
Speaker 3: and her little sister kept like snooping in a and

878
00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:02,360
Speaker 3: so I gave mine and my old legs to my

879
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 3: friend to put under her bed. The little sister went

880
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:07,040
Speaker 3: in there and looked under a bed, got the biggest

881
00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:09,840
Speaker 3: bride of her life, and she never went in there again.

882
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:14,040
Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit about how the technology has

883
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:18,080
Speaker 1: changed and then now robotics involved compared to say when

884
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:20,200
Speaker 1: you were three years old getting your first one.

885
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:25,000
Speaker 3: Mm hmm. So when I was three, my leg had

886
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:28,040
Speaker 3: this like Pulley system, so I would have to hold

887
00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:29,759
Speaker 3: onto like a string. It was like a puppet leg

888
00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:32,640
Speaker 3: al most actually, So that was my first leg. And

889
00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:36,560
Speaker 3: then up until I was about sixteen, I was walking

890
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:40,040
Speaker 3: on basically it was basically like a door hinge style knee,

891
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:42,520
Speaker 3: but I would fall over a lot, so I have

892
00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:44,840
Speaker 3: a lot of scars on my hands, on my knees

893
00:41:44,880 --> 00:41:48,799
Speaker 3: and everything kind of cute. And then I remember when

894
00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:50,560
Speaker 3: I was in high school, like I got this like

895
00:41:51,200 --> 00:41:55,239
Speaker 3: new technologically advanced leg. So my old ones used to

896
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:57,520
Speaker 3: be held on just with like these strap, like a

897
00:41:57,560 --> 00:41:59,560
Speaker 3: strap around my waist and it would basically just hang

898
00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:02,719
Speaker 3: off my body. And then the legs these days you

899
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:05,480
Speaker 3: like roll a silicon liner onto what's left of your

900
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:07,719
Speaker 3: leg and has like this pin at the end and

901
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,279
Speaker 3: then you just put the pin into your prosthetic kind

902
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:12,840
Speaker 3: of like it grabs onea And I remember, like the

903
00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:15,760
Speaker 3: first day I ever got that, it was so painful

904
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:17,920
Speaker 3: because it was pulling down on all of these muscles

905
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:21,160
Speaker 3: that I never used in my life, and it was excruciating.

906
00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:23,760
Speaker 3: And I remember my friends were piggybacking me from classroom

907
00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:26,279
Speaker 3: to classroom because I couldn't walk. I'm used to it now,

908
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:32,240
Speaker 3: so that's good. But now, ever since I think maybe

909
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:35,320
Speaker 3: ten years ago, the US Army have started investing a

910
00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:39,680
Speaker 3: lot of money into prosthetics for there or anybody that

911
00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:41,960
Speaker 3: really comes back from war and all of their veterans

912
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:45,640
Speaker 3: that need any kind of prosthetic, And so they've all

913
00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:49,400
Speaker 3: got like computers and Bluetooth and different like I've got

914
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:52,759
Speaker 3: running mode, I've got skiing mode. Really, yeah, all these

915
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:55,400
Speaker 3: different modes. That's cool, and they just kind of you

916
00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:58,759
Speaker 3: can just change the modes on your phone and yeah,

917
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:02,600
Speaker 3: they're all like waterproof and proof and they're very expensive though. Yeah,

918
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:05,840
Speaker 3: so it's been really great that the US Army have

919
00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:10,200
Speaker 3: done all of the research behind that but it's not

920
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:13,440
Speaker 3: really accessible to people like your everyday person to get

921
00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:15,719
Speaker 3: one of those. I think that's probably the next step

922
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:19,640
Speaker 3: that needs to be made to the Australian government. Yeah,

923
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:22,279
Speaker 3: to make things more affordable. The NDIS is helping out

924
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 3: a little bit. But you know, these legs are one

925
00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:29,000
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty grand each and you know, I think

926
00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:31,759
Speaker 3: the NDIS, I think only funds what's case by gase,

927
00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:35,000
Speaker 3: but only about ten to twenty thousands. So yeah, they

928
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:39,279
Speaker 3: can get really expensive. Yeah, so they're great if you're

929
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:41,799
Speaker 3: going to affward one. Yeah, I'm really happy that. I'm

930
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:44,359
Speaker 3: really lucky that I've Toyota in a sponsor and they

931
00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:46,680
Speaker 3: paid for one for me, which was really nice.

932
00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:46,960
Speaker 2: Yea.

933
00:43:48,280 --> 00:43:50,280
Speaker 3: They didn't actually want anything in return, they just wanted

934
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:51,200
Speaker 3: me to be happier.

935
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:52,360
Speaker 2: That's incredible.

936
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:54,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like Toyota do some incredible work in

937
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 1: that space, which is amazing.

938
00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:57,960
Speaker 3: They do, and they're working with a lot of like

939
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 3: Paralympic alpine skiers and like new chairs for them, and

940
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:05,120
Speaker 3: they're starting to get into that field. They just really

941
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:08,000
Speaker 3: love sport and parasport and obviously they're an Olympic and

942
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:10,279
Speaker 3: Paralympic sponsors. So they really embraced that.

943
00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:11,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's amazing.

944
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:16,759
Speaker 1: What does post swimming career life look like for Ellie Cole?

945
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:20,120
Speaker 3: I don't want to ever think about that because I

946
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:25,680
Speaker 3: love swimming so much. Masters swimming Masters straight. No. Well,

947
00:44:25,719 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 3: I actually finished UNI last year and so that was

948
00:44:28,239 --> 00:44:30,279
Speaker 3: really exciting to get that done.

949
00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:31,359
Speaker 2: What did you do it?

950
00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:36,120
Speaker 3: I did Health and Exercise Science and ACU for me, Like,

951
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:38,279
Speaker 3: I've got a few different avenues that I want to

952
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:39,920
Speaker 3: go down, but my biggest stream would be to open

953
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:42,279
Speaker 3: up a swimmer school. Oh wow, I really want to

954
00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:44,160
Speaker 3: do that. I love working with kids. It's like my

955
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:46,760
Speaker 3: favorite thing in the world. Yeah. I used to actually

956
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:48,799
Speaker 3: have my own swimming squad, which is the one that

957
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:51,520
Speaker 3: I got at the pool to watch your game. Yeah,

958
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:53,920
Speaker 3: And I always teld my boss like, I would do

959
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:57,959
Speaker 3: this for free, but you have to, baby. But people

960
00:44:58,000 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 3: have always told me that I should do something as

961
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:02,640
Speaker 3: my career is what I would do for free. And

962
00:45:02,719 --> 00:45:05,200
Speaker 3: so I really want to open my own SIM school

963
00:45:05,560 --> 00:45:07,239
Speaker 3: because I don't really want to work for anybody else,

964
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:10,400
Speaker 3: but I would really like to do a different SIM school,

965
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:12,719
Speaker 3: so like one that caters for you know, refugees that

966
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:15,200
Speaker 3: come into Australia a lot of like adults and classes,

967
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:19,080
Speaker 3: and one that made me take caters towards like autistic

968
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:21,880
Speaker 3: kids or kids with any kind of difference in it

969
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:24,319
Speaker 3: that there's such like seventy holes to fill in that

970
00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:28,040
Speaker 3: in that space. But I just think it'd be really fulfilling.

971
00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:31,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, that sounds really really cool. I very much

972
00:45:31,920 --> 00:45:33,759
Speaker 1: hope you get the chance to do that. I'll get

973
00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:37,640
Speaker 1: your free swimming lessons. You're right, can you swim? I'm

974
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:41,160
Speaker 1: all right, Yeah, I'm definitely not close to your level.

975
00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:42,160
Speaker 2: I can get by, but.

976
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,600
Speaker 3: I'm okay, I'm not close to Kate and them, so

977
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:46,560
Speaker 3: there's no excuse.

978
00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:48,919
Speaker 2: All right.

979
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:52,200
Speaker 1: Final segment is a would you rather segment? The first

980
00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:54,400
Speaker 1: one we kind of touched on this, but I'm interested

981
00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:57,040
Speaker 1: to know your final answer. Number one, would you rather

982
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:01,880
Speaker 1: silver in Tokyo on a personal best time or to

983
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:04,040
Speaker 1: win gold in a slow time?

984
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:04,800
Speaker 3: Oh?

985
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:07,480
Speaker 2: That's a hard hard They're meant to be hard.

986
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:10,000
Speaker 3: Oh, that's actually one of the hardest questions I've ever

987
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:12,960
Speaker 3: been asked. My whole life is like choosing if your

988
00:46:13,160 --> 00:46:14,680
Speaker 3: mum or your dad is the favorite.

989
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:15,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's hard.

990
00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:19,520
Speaker 3: Who's your favorite? Your mamma, your dad? Oh no, don't, okay,

991
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:24,680
Speaker 3: I would I think I would for Australia win gold. Okay, yeah,

992
00:46:24,760 --> 00:46:25,920
Speaker 3: I like doing it for the country.

993
00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 2: I like that.

994
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:29,439
Speaker 1: Number two very selfish to want to do a peb

995
00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:33,640
Speaker 1: in a silver is well your career, like you're the

996
00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:34,200
Speaker 1: one that's.

997
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:36,320
Speaker 3: I want to win it for Australia. I'm gonna say.

998
00:46:36,160 --> 00:46:38,359
Speaker 2: Gold, Okay, I like it. Number two.

999
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:42,200
Speaker 1: Would you rather to not be able to use toothpaste

1000
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:45,720
Speaker 1: or moisturizer for the rest of your swimming career?

1001
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:49,920
Speaker 3: That is easy moisturizer? Oh like scaly, little disgusting fish.

1002
00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:53,799
Speaker 3: I actually accidentally and my best friend's house brushed my

1003
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:56,480
Speaker 3: teeth with deep heat once because she had it next

1004
00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:58,719
Speaker 3: to her sink and she had the label face down,

1005
00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:00,520
Speaker 3: and so I just grabbed my tooth brush went form

1006
00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:03,879
Speaker 3: into my mouth and I was like, Kate, what is this?

1007
00:47:04,640 --> 00:47:06,000
Speaker 3: Just like, what do you mean? She came down like

1008
00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:08,440
Speaker 3: that's deep heat, and I was like, I know that now,

1009
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:10,000
Speaker 3: my mouthing umpire.

1010
00:47:09,719 --> 00:47:13,000
Speaker 2: I can feel that out. Number three.

1011
00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:16,799
Speaker 1: Would you rather have ten tiny clones of yourself or

1012
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:19,600
Speaker 1: one supersized clone of yourself?

1013
00:47:19,719 --> 00:47:21,160
Speaker 3: How supersized are we talking?

1014
00:47:21,640 --> 00:47:21,799
Speaker 1: Well?

1015
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:23,719
Speaker 2: I feel like it can be as big as you like.

1016
00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:26,240
Speaker 3: I'm going to say, this is going to be really strange.

1017
00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:30,960
Speaker 3: I'm going to say really supersized. If my super size

1018
00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:33,640
Speaker 3: self could carry me around because I hate walking, okay,

1019
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 3: and so just kind of carrying me in the hand.

1020
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:39,400
Speaker 3: Be like, you're going to be in Sydney City in

1021
00:47:39,600 --> 00:47:40,360
Speaker 3: ten minutes.

1022
00:47:41,719 --> 00:47:42,840
Speaker 2: That's very convenient.

1023
00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:45,840
Speaker 3: Like ten supersized ellies, I'm going to get any anywhere?

1024
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:48,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the tiny ones won't get you anywhere. We

1025
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:49,480
Speaker 1: need a big one.

1026
00:47:49,520 --> 00:47:52,439
Speaker 3: Then think of all the tiny supersized clothes that could

1027
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:54,120
Speaker 3: like bold your washing.

1028
00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:58,320
Speaker 2: Don't like to cook jobs that could be very handy.

1029
00:47:58,560 --> 00:48:02,160
Speaker 3: So it depends. Would you either like super fast travel.

1030
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:05,640
Speaker 2: Or I would like my washing folded? That would be nice.

1031
00:48:06,120 --> 00:48:07,359
Speaker 3: Now we're going down a rabbit hole.

1032
00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:10,120
Speaker 1: Okay, before we finish up, Where can people find you

1033
00:48:10,200 --> 00:48:11,080
Speaker 1: on socials?

1034
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:13,319
Speaker 3: Ellie call Swim on Instagram.

1035
00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:15,719
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for giving up your time to

1036
00:48:15,760 --> 00:48:18,480
Speaker 1: come on today. I've loved having a chat about what

1037
00:48:18,520 --> 00:48:20,160
Speaker 1: you've learned throughout your career, and I love the way

1038
00:48:20,160 --> 00:48:22,800
Speaker 1: that you've kind of been able to change your perspective

1039
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:24,400
Speaker 1: to now be in a place where you're really enjoying

1040
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:26,480
Speaker 1: your swimming and loving it, and yeah, I can't can't

1041
00:48:26,520 --> 00:48:28,760
Speaker 1: wait to watch you in Tokyo. It's really exciting and

1042
00:48:29,239 --> 00:48:31,520
Speaker 1: hopefully get to well, I'm sure if it does go ahead,

1043
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:33,400
Speaker 1: we'll be in a kind of a little bubble.

1044
00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:35,680
Speaker 3: But yeah, well I get to watch you first.

1045
00:48:35,880 --> 00:48:39,680
Speaker 1: Yes, no pressure, but can't wait to watch. And yeah,

1046
00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:42,480
Speaker 1: thanks so much for coming on, Thank you, thanks so

1047
00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:45,399
Speaker 1: much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, would love

1048
00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:47,040
Speaker 1: it if you could send it on to one person

1049
00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:49,200
Speaker 1: who you think would get something out of it. A

1050
00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:52,320
Speaker 1: big thanks to my team Bailey, Mike, Bez and Millie.

1051
00:48:52,640 --> 00:48:53,880
Speaker 2: I couldn't do it without you. Guys.

1052
00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:58,080
Speaker 1: Find us on Instagram at the Female Athlete Project. See

1053
00:48:58,080 --> 00:48:58,680
Speaker 1: you next time.