NSWIS welcomes Ellie Cole AM to Board

The NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Ellie Cole AM to its Board, as well as the reappointments of Gary Flowers as Chair, Elizabeth Crouch AM as Deputy Chair, and Olympian Matt Shirvington on the board. 

The four will contribute to the nine-strong NSWIS Board which is entrusted with the vital role of positioning the Institute’s athletes, and its staff, to enjoy success over the next four years at a number of global sporting events. These include the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, and then, the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

The Board also has the job of helping to ensure NSWIS and its athletes has a strong, strategic build-up to a successful ‘home’ Games, the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

Ms Cole’s appointment, allied with the reappointments of Mr Flowers, Ms Crouch and Mr Shirvington, ensures NSWIS’s board will continue to offer strong leadership, diversity and a broad skillset which – collectively – provides the Institute with astute sport governance, business acumen, strategic planning, commercial expertise, and invaluable first-hand elite athlete experience. 

Ms Cole is regarded as an icon of Australian sport. The winner of 17 Paralympic medals – six of which were gold – and who also represented Victoria in wheelchair basketball, understands the support athletes require to perform at their very best.  

Ms Cole’s  achievements outside of the swimming pool are as equally impressive and they include her establishing a successful media/television career; her appointment as the general manager of the Australian team at the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games; being named as a member of the Paralympics Australia board, her staunch commitment as an advocate for people with disabilities; becoming a highly sought after motivational speaker/MC, and even appearing on last year’s reality TV show I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. 

The process for Ms Coles appointment commenced in September 2024 when NSWIS asked for Expressions of Interest via the Institute’s website and other channels. The applicants were shortlisted, and candidates were interviewed by a selection committee which identified Ms Cole as the most suitable candidate. 

Along with Mr Flowers, Ms Crouch, and Mr Shirvington, she was appointed for the term from 1 Dec 2024 to 30 Nov 2027. They join Adam Berry, Michael Bushell, Amy Jones, Melissa King and Brad Lancken. 

NSWIS wishes to acknowledge and thank Sarah Ryan OAM who has stepped down from the Board. Ms Ryan provided the NSWIS board with tremendous expertise and enthusiasm, and she contributed greatly to the tremendous results the Institute enjoyed during her terms.  Ms Ryan also played a significant role in the formation and operation of the NSWIS Athlete Advisory Group. 

Also, Mr Adam Berry has replaced Ms Karen Jones as the Office of Sport (OoS) delegate on the NSWIS Board. Mr Berry was named Acting CEO of OoS after Ms Jones’s appointment as the Acting CEO of Destination NSW.

NSWIS Chair Mr Gary Flowers said: 

“It’s a pleasure to welcome Ellie to the NSWIS Board. 

“She brings outstanding credentials to NSWIS. She has a sporting champion’s unique insights into the support individuals require to succeed at the highest level; Ellie is also an outstanding media talent; she was exceptional as general manager of the 2023 Australia Commonwealth Games Youth team and remains a passionate and authoritative voice . . . a wonderful advocate . . . for people with disabilities. 

“She is already an inspiration to so many of our athletes, and we look forward to Ellie’s efforts and contributions to NSWIS. I know she’ll be active in ensuring the Institute fulfills its responsibility of ensuring our scholarship holders have every opportunity possible to be ‘world’s best’ through the multitude of services and support the Institute’s experts provide. 

Ellie Cole AM said: 

“As soon as I left sport, I looked at new ways and different opportunities to stay involved because, personally, sport gave me so much. I want to support as many athletes as possible and for them to feel as though they’re in a place where they belong – just as I did.  

“Something that stood out to me when I walked through the halls of NSWIS as an athlete was the diversity of the scholarship holders: Paralympic athletes, able bodied athletes, males, females, athletes from different sports. And every athlete, whether they’d been to four Paralympics or four Olympics, or were training for their first appearance at one, was treated as equally important by all of the staff. That feeling of everyone being equal at NSWIS really shone through.  

“I’m very excited to be with such a great team. I’m excited to be working with NSWIS’s CEO Kevin Thompson, someone who I’ve known for a number of years. I was always super-excited by his leadership when I was an athlete and now that I’m a member of the board, I want to contribute to NSWIS – a world leading sporting institute.” 

Daniel Lane, NSWIS