Eliza Stankovic-Mowle is and always will be a Canberra girl at heart.

Surviving meningococcal disease as a teen, Eliza, who went to school in Red Hill, has represented Australia at the Olympic and Paralympic Games since 2004.

Today, the local mum of three is focusing on her health and her family and has discovered a new love of cooking.

“Cooking with the kids is an absolutely fantastic way to build healthy habits and strong relationships. I get the most information out of them when we’re relaxing in the kitchen. They tell me how they’re going and about their day, and we all share a love of food and cooking,” says Eliza.

“One of our favourites to make is a spinach and feta pie. We grow silverbeet in our garden too and they love eating that. When you grow what you cook it’s so enjoyable and makes the experience so positive. They don’t want [takeaway] because they have fresh, beautiful meals at home!”

Her current obsession is the new Smeg oven, the Galileo, which she says has turned her into a total home chef.

“There’s nothing like preparing fresh ingredients and sharing with family and friends. Having access to this amazing appliance makes cooking the meals we enjoy in restaurants that we thought were so hard to make so easy, and you can do it right at home,” says Eliza.

After taking some time off from the world of sports to raise her children, Eliza is back and better than ever.

“It was my kids who motivated me to return to sport after I watched them watch the Paralympics and they saw what it was about. They said to me, ‘you used to be cool, why can’t you do that again?’,” laughs Eliza.

“Throughout my career 2.0, they’ve had so many experiences. They’ve been able to travel the world, have exposure to so many people with different disabilities. “

Eliza’s children have had a somewhat unorthodox yet conventional childhood growing up with a mum who has a disability, and she says it’s turned them into beautifully empathetic people.

“They definitely have more empathy. There’s so many things children can learn through different situations and experiences by being exposed to people that are different,” smiles Eliza.

“It increases their self-reflection but also their appreciation for uniqueness, they can embrace all people.”

Evidence of this is shown through Eliza’s Instagram, with one image showing one of her children playing in her wheelchair along with the caption:

I love the fact that my kids embrace the wheelchair. While I was training this morning, the conversation turned to ‘Mum I wouldn’t actually mind if I was in a wheelchair, I’d do donuts all day’ and ‘I think I actually look cute in a wheelchair’. Safe to say my kids are growing up differently.

Budding Olympians, they’re all into Little Athletics and basketball and are very competitive with whatever sport they’re doing, according to Eliza. Sharing the love of being active with their mum, it makes finding a balance of spending time with her children and working a little easier for Eliza.

“As many of us parents can testify, there’s always conflicting parts of your life that are vying for your attention and time. I don’t know if we ever truly find balance but finding the tilt of what needs more attention than others is what we deal with each and every day,” she says.

Recently having had the opportunity to compete in the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Eliza is well aware of the incredible honour of representing her country at such a prestigious event.

“It’s something that you never take for granted each and every time. It’s an honour and a privilege to be able to do something you love at the highest level possible,” she says.

“Representing your country in that way is something that’s quite difficult to describe … there’s an immense sense of pride you feel when you step out into the competition arena. We’ve all been that child dreaming of those moments at home, and to one day throwing on that green and gold is such a magical feeling.

“Tokyo was just so amazing! People ordinarily wouldn’t have time to sit and watch the Paralympic Games and there were so many new people who were exposed to different sports and people with disabilities because of lockdown.”

Representation matters, and Eliza says even if you have a disability, there’s no stopping what you can do.

“It does come down to ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’. We can have people with disabilities in all places – members of parliament, doctors, nurses… the visibility of people with disabilities is growing,” she says.

“Mainstream media is one way we can play a small part in that.”

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