Ellie Cole is a bona fide Australian sporting champion. Yet as other women athletes, or sportspeople of colour or other minorities can attest, success is no shield sometimes.
Tokyo 2020 Paralympics briefing: two more weeks of glory and despair
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“You know, six years ago, I was working at a place and I was told that I was a ‘diversity hire,’” she tells Guardian Australia from a training camp in Cairns.
The star swimmer believes the comment was made in jest. But she was disappointed. “And I think that’s when I really started asking myself questions about what’s happening outside of the sporting space,” she says. “Because as a prolific athlete, I do live in a bit of a bubble. What’s actually happening out there in the real world needs to be spoken about more.”
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On Thursday the International Paralympic Committee – along with dozens of other major organisations – will launchWeThe15, which they hope to be the world’s largest human [...]