Carol Cooke is a Canadian-born Australian cyclist, swimmer and rower. She was part of the Canadian national swimming team, hoping to be selected for the 1980 Moscow Olympics before her country boycotted the games. She moved to Australia in 1994, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998 and basically told her life was over, she’d soon be in a wheelchair and to “get her affairs in order” (she was literally told this). She decided to choose her own path and destiny, took up rowing and narrowly missed out on being part of the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. She then switched to cycling, where she won a gold medal at the 2012 London Paralympics and two gold medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics. This is one of those perspective-providing chats with a solution-focused, zero self-pity, let’s control our controllables and get-shit-done (type) people. Love her. Enjoy.

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