Australian 23-year old Paralympian Ellie Cole is continuing to rehab from a double shoulder reconstruction in 2013, and for the first time has put a timetable on her planner return to highly competitive swimming.
Cole is shooting for the 2015 IPC World Swimming Championships in Glasgow as her return to international swimming.
“Glasgow 2015 will be an interesting one,” Cole said of her plans. “I am taking my return to swimming with little baby steps being careful not to rush into things too quickly and re-injure myself.”
Cole, who swims primarily in the S9 category, did race once early this year, but still isn’t at her full race pace.
“Swimming has changed remarkably since I have been out of the sport and there is a whole new pool of competitors, excuse the pun. All I know is that I will race the best I can,” she said.
“Over the last 12 years of competing I have learnt not to worry about what anybody else is doing because at the end of the day you need to expect the unexpected. There is no point worrying about that now is there?!”
Cole won four gold and two bronze medals at the 2012 Paralympic Games to go with a silver and two bronzes from Beijing in 2008. She has never won an IPC World Swimming Championship, having been forced to sit out 2013 with the shoulder injury.
“I have loved coaching in my recovery time – it takes me back to when I was a kid and got frustrated over every minute detail.
“I find myself extremely proud of the athletes I coach and have sometimes even had to hold back a few tears when they’ve done well! I know what it means to these kids to win and I want to show them how to do it.
“It was great to go back to the grassroots level of the sport and seeing kids enjoy just being in a team environment and training hard to reach their goals. I must say I had a bit of nostalgia and it has made me remember everything that the sport is about.”
The surgery and subsequent rehab has also put any talk of retirement firmly to back of her mind having initially discussed the move from the sport post-Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
She said: “Obviously, I seem to like to throw the word retirement around! It was always my plan to retire post London. I had some serious reflection time after my surgeon explained that having a shoulder reconstruction could see me out of the pool indefinitely.”
“Having the thoughts of never being able to swim again made me realise just how lucky I was to be able to and just how much I loved to compete.”
Quotes taken from an article published by the International Paralympic Committee and Abdullah Mahmood.