Injury has silver lining
BATTLING a foot injury when you only have one leg is no small matter.
But Ellie Cole has found an upside and is set to reap the benefits at the Commonwealth Games.
Six-time Paralympic gold medallist Cole can see the humour now but after months of struggling with a broken bone in her foot, there was little to smile about.
“I broke my fifth metatarsal about four months ago now,” said Cole, who will compete in the S9 100m freestyle and 100m backstroke at the Games with the para athletes for the swimming team already finalised.
“I just rolled my foot (in a pothole) and instead of rolling my ankle, my foot broke.
“In hindsight I can look back and laugh now at the humour of it all because having only one leg, I had to zip around on my office chair in my house for a couple of weeks.”
Cole, who lost her right leg to cancer at age two, faced a frustrating period out of her regular training regimen as the fracture took time to heal.
“It did actually (take longer to heal than first anticipated). The doctor said it ELLIE COLE
would take six to eight weeks and it took 12,” Cole said.
And while the injury itself was relatively minor, it had a major effect on Cole’s positioning in the water, leading her to identify weaknesses in her body and work on them ahead of the Games.
“One of the interesting things I found in training was
just how much the dynamics changed in my technique,” she said.
“A lot of my stability comes from my leg and all of a sudden I wasn’t using that any more.
“It was really good for me to realise that I had to do some serious work on my core strength and hip stability to get it right for Commonwealth Games.”
Cole has since turned the negative into a positive, working with her coach – University of Sunshine Coast-based Nathan Doyle – her physiotherapist and gym trainer to come back stronger than ever.
“One of the things that Paralympic athletes are really good at is finding all the positives in such a bad situation,” Cole said.
“But I’ve had to do that for all of my life and I think that really showed through when I did break my foot.
“I could have had a big sulk about it but I just had to get on with the job – I’m a professional athlete, I just had to get in and do what I had to do.”
Cole will compete in the S9 100m free and 100m backstroke at the Games – events in which she had success at the London and Rio Paralympics – but knows she faces a stern test on the Gold Coast.
“They’re very strong events for me but the British are really strong contenders for the gold medal, so I’ve really got to make sure that I’m doing everything I can,” said Cole, who will also swim at the national titles at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre next week.