YAKIMA – A Davis High School graduate 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 in a recent phone interview. “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 took up 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.