Yakima native gets ready for next month’s Paralympics

YAKIMA– A Yakima, Washington, native will be part of the American downhill ski team at the 2018 Paralympics next month.

Josh Elliott said he will be skiing in all the downhill slalom events at the games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where the 2018 Winter Olympics are underway. The games for athletes with disabilities will run from March 9 to 18, and Elliott will have his own cheering section, comprised of family and fellow U.S. Marines.

“It feels pretty amazing,” Elliott said. “I’m stoked.”

Elliott, a retired Marine Corps sergeant, took up monoskiing after losing both legs and three fingers on his left hand when he stepped on a 20-pound bomb in Afghanistan in April 2011.

An avid snowboarder before he was injured, Elliott began monoskiing at the behest of a recreational therapist and was recruited into the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club’s development program, one of the feeder teams for the national Paralympics program.

To ski, Elliott attaches a jointed rig to his lower torso that is clipped into the binding on a single ski, and he uses modified poles to guide himself down the slope at speeds reaching 50 mph.

Elliott, who has competed on the World Cup ski circuit, said he is trying to treat the Paralympics as “just another race.”

The slopes at the Olympic venue won’t be new to him. He competed in a World Cup there earlier.

He said his main opponent on the slopes will be the clock, where success is measured in fractions of a second.

Rooting for him in South Korea will be his wife, Samantha; his parents, Dennis and DeLynn Elliott; his wife’s parents; and a couple of the Marines he served with when he was a combat engineer.

Dennis Elliott said he and his wife are excited to see Josh compete.

“I’m happy that Josh is doing this,” DeLynn Elliott said. “(His injuries) could have been a big tragedy.”

Elliott said the 2018 Games will be his only Paralympics, as he plans to retire from competitive skiing and follow his wife into church service.

Elliott graduated from Yakima’s Davis High School in 2000.