After coming agonisingly close to selection for Gold Coast 2018, Ellen Ryan (lawn bowls) made her Commonwealth Games debut in 2022 as the youngest member of the 18-strong Jackaroos team in Birmingham where she claimed an historic gold medal in the women’s singles, the only able-bodied event Australia had never won. It was also Australia’s first lawn bowls gold at a Commonwealth Games in England, Scotland or Wales. Five days later, she teamed up with best friend Kristina Krstic to complete a golden double in the women’s pairs, just the second Australian duo to win the event. Ellen’s mother Cathie is an avid bowler and Ellen decided to give it a go when she was nine. She claimed the Australian under-18 singles title in 2012, took gold in the triples in 2013 and 2014 and gold in the pairs in 2015. That year also yielded the Australian Open singles title as well as selection for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa where the then 18-year-old won gold in the mixed pairs and silver in the girls’ singles. Ryan plays with the Cabramatta Bowls Club in Sydney and was given a street parade and a civic reception when she returned to her home town of Goulburn in the NSW southern highlands after the Games.