Ellen Ryan is a lawn bowler who was awarded a Scholarship within the 2016 Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentoring Program, and was paired with Dawn Fraser AC MBE as her Mentor.
Ellen was born in Sydney in 2016 and began lawn bowls in 2008 alongside her mother. The mother and daughter team won a club minor pairs competition, and soon Ellen’s career began to blossom.
From 2012 – 2015, Ellen won gold at the Australian Under-18 Championships and led the NSW team to the overall trophy in 2015. She was subsequently chosen for the 10-player Australian Under-18 squad for the next 12 months.
Ellen soon moved to the senior ranks and helped NSW secure the Marj Morris Trophy, unbeaten against all states and territories, before she won the women’s title at the Australian Open in 2015 and was selected to represent her country at the Trans-Tasman series in Christchurch, New Zealand. She won further national titles in 2017.
Her success at open level, despite her tender years, saw Ellen selected in the sport’s high-performance team, the Australian Jackaroos, for the 2016 World Bowls Championships. She also represented her country at international tournaments in Australia, Wales and Hong Kong during 2017 and 2018, where she collected more gold medals.
2019 brought more success and culminated in Ellen winning the Trans-Tasman Overall Team title and being declared the Overall Women’s Development Champion. Beyond the bowling greens, Ellen enjoys soccer, touch football and horse riding, and is a school learning support officer as well as a retained firefighter.
Honours & Achievements
- 2012: Australian Under-18 Championships – Gold, Singles
- 2013: Junior Trans-Tasman – Overall Team Champion
- 2013: Australian Under-18 Championships – Gold, Triples
- 2014: Australian Under-18 Championships – Gold, Triples
- 2014: Junior Trans-Tasman – Overall Team Champion
- 2015: Australian Under-18 Championships – Gold, Pairs
- 2015: Australian Under-18 Championships – Bronze, Fours
- 2015: NSW Champions Trophy
- 2015: Trans-Tasman Series, New Zealand
- 2015: Marj Morris Trophy – overall trophy
- 2015 Australian Open – Gold, Singles
- 2016: World Bowls Championships
- 2017: Australian Open – Gold, Singles
- 2017 Australian Open – Gold, Pairs
- 2017 Australian Open – Silver, Fours
- 2017 Gold Coast Multi-Nations – Gold, Fours
- 2017: Australian Open – Champion
- 2018: Hong Kong International – Gold, Pairs
- 2018: Welsh 10-Nations – Gold, Pairs
- 2019: Multi-Nations – Overall Team/Overall Women’s Champion
- 2019: Multi-Nations – Gold – Singles, Pairs
- 2019: Trans-Tasman – Overall Team/Overall Women’s Development Champion
- 2021: Australian Open – Silver, Pairs
- 2021: Australian Open – Silver, Fours
- 2022: Trans-Tasman – Overall Team/Overall Women’s Champion
- 2022: Commonwealth Games
- 2022: Bowls Premier League, BPL15 – Champion