Ellie Cole at Hockey Clinic transcript

Hi, I'm Ellie Cole, I'm the ambassador for APM, and I'm here today at the Hockey for All clinic. As an APM ambassador, being here at the Hockey for All clinic means everything to me. I never had anything like this when I was growing , and my endeavours into the Paralympic space were all my own doing, because I didn't have support like this.

So to be able to be here today and to see this amazing initiative, to be inclusive with our sports in our communities is so much more important than I could ever put into words. Hey, Anabel, can I get a picture of you and Ellie together quickly? Oh, yeah. Make flex your arms something.

Participating events like this makes me feel very excited about the future, particularly for sports with people that have disabilities. It's very important for people to come here today and to know that they have a place where they can feel like they belong. They have a place where they can showcase their true potential and be whoever they want to be when they are here and feel comfortable with who they are when they’re here as well.

What are you thinking this week, you're excited for hockey today? Yeah. What else? The coin flip. The coin flip. Yeah. You’re doing the coin toss before the thunder sticks. Yeah, yeah, that's going to be pretty cool.

APM believe in making sport accessible for everyone. And clinics like the Hockey for All clinic today, ensures that whoever wants to play sport, whoever wants the opportunity to participate in their communities, can do so.

It's an amazing initiative with the support of APM, that anybody can come down here today knowing that they want to play sport or they want to get to know someone in their communities and they're able to do so. I never had any role models when I was growing up that looked the way that I did, so to be able to be here today, to be a role model that has a disability and is an athlete, and to have young athletes are an aspiring to be like us, or elite athletes one day is incredible. It's something that I never thought would happen.

Everyone should be able to find a place where they feel like they can belong in the community, and sport is one of those things that's the fabric of our community. And if our sports aren't inclusive, then our communities aren't inclusive. So it's really important that we have days like Hockey for All, because it's an inclusive practice that makes sure that everyone feels welcomed.

If I could give any message to young people with disabilities would be to, of course, never give up. You're going to have people out there who will tell you what you can do or tell you how you can think, but it's all up to you.