Ellie Bowen, Ellie Bowen, was just 13 months old when a rare bacterial infection, necrotising fasciitis, threatened her life and led to the amputation of her right leg. Now 17, she is the youngest member of the Welsh athletics squad and will make her Commonwealth Games debut in the seated shot put.\n\nBorn in Caerphilly, Bowen’s journey began when Anthony Hughes, the performance director at Disability Sport Wales, spotted her talent and introduced her to wheelchair racing. She quickly collected medals before discovering a passion for throwing. “I started shot put, discus and javelin when Covid happened.

I won best performer,” she recalls. Her parents, Anne and Martin, have supported her relentlessly: Martin built a specially adapted bicycle and later a campervan to travel to competitions.\n\n“Nothing has ever been an obstacle for me,” she says. Bowen hopes to make her parents proud in Glasgow’s Scotstoun Stadium, where she will compete for Wales in front of a proud crowd. “It would mean the world to me to win a medal, but just being there is enough,” she adds.\n\nFrom a childhood dream of competing, she has become a role model for young athletes with disabilities, proving that determination can overcome the toughest challenges.