Preparing for the Commonwealth Games

Ella Jones made her Commonwealth Games debut at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games where she compete in the 100m backstroke S8 and the 100m breaststroke SB6 events.

Born in Penrith, New South Wales, Ella now lives and trains in Alstonville, 800km from where she was born, and thanks her parents every day for supporting her journey. Ella begun to swim competitively when she was 15, joining the Springwood Swimming Club and going on to make her Dolphins debut as one of nine rookies at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in London.

Where are you?

As of right now, the games are complete. I’m on a wonderful holiday with my parents as we road trip around Scotland and next we will be travelling to Finland. Then, once I’m home, I’ll be relocating from Lismore to Adelaide.

What are you doing?

Right now, I am having a well deserved break after a long season and lots of training. The break is really nice right now. But soon I will be getting ready to work really hard in preparation to make the world championships team next year.

What was it like being in Birmingham? What was the atmosphere in the village?

Being in Birmingham was amazing and the village was so lovely. They call the Commonwealth Games the ‘friendly games’ and I definitely agree, you could really feel that in the village. 

I have been able to have some amazing conversations with people all over the world. I was able to interact with so many new cultures I never would have otherwise. The feel in the village was amazing. There was a sense of seriousness of course, because of the competition, but there was also a sense of fun.

What was your training like leading up to the Commonwealth Games?

My Commonwealth Games profile says I was training in Alstonvile, but actually I was living in Alstonvile and training in Lismore. This is problematic if you know about the flooding that the area experienced recently.

3 weeks before our para swimming trials, the floods blocked supply trucks from getting to where I lived so we had no food, no water, and no petrol for 3 days. 

The only thing I had in my fridge was beer so I had to live on beer for 3 days, which wouldn’t have been a problem if I wasn’t trying to prepare for a Commonwealth Games. The floods also completely destroyed the pool I was using in Lismore, so my training was significantly diminished. Instead of training 9 times a week it had to be cut to whenever I had access to a pool, which was 6 times a week.

Race Day/Facts

Ella is a triplet, with brother Daniel and sister Georgia and has an older brother Joshua. Ella has a race day routine of eating eggs and giving the kicker a big kick before her race, something she has done since she started racing.