{"id":801694,"date":"2019-11-23T17:20:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T00:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/paralympic-gold-medalist-elliott-takes-coordinator-role-for-steamboat-adaptive-sports-program\/"},"modified":"2019-11-23T17:20:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T00:20:01","slug":"paralympic-gold-medalist-elliott-takes-coordinator-role-for-steamboat-adaptive-sports-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/paralympic-gold-medalist-elliott-takes-coordinator-role-for-steamboat-adaptive-sports-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Paralympic gold medalist Elliott takes coordinator role for Steamboat adaptive sports program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 The first time Noah Elliott came to Steamboat Springs, the Steamboat Adaptive Recreational Sports \u2014 STARS \u2014 program changed his life. At the time, he was a teenager battling osteosarcoma bone cancer in his left leg. Now, he\u2019s a gold medal Paralympic snowboarder, keynote speaker and a father to a 6-year-old daughter. Having experienced more than most 22-year-olds, Elliott returned to Steamboat last month to work as the program coordinator with STARS in hopes of changing someone else\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to give back what I was given and help people experience the life-changing opportunity that shows them they are more capable than what they thought and shows them that somebody believes in them,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n

As program and outreach coordinator, Elliott will be teaching lessons to participants in the summer and winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cNoah, to me, is what our mission is all about,\u201d said STARS Executive Director Julie Taulman. \u201cNoah started in the program as a participant in our Kids with Cancer program. He came back as a mentor, and then he went on to become a Paralympian. \u2026 Noah exemplifies what we\u2019re trying to achieve in our program.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Elliott was diagnosed with cancer, he was already a semi-professional skateboarder. He came out to Steamboat in 2014 with the Sunshine Kids, a national program that brings quality of life to kids with cancer. He wanted to snowboard, but because of the treatment he had been receiving at the time, he wasn\u2019t able to use his left leg, so he was sent down the mountain on a ski bike.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being in one of the buses and looking out at the mountains,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t stop smiling because I was in Steamboat Springs, and it was my first time ever seeing the mountains. They were so breathtaking that I couldn\u2019t help my excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n

After he returned home to St. Louis, Missouri, he learned he needed another surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was 17 years old, I decided to amputate my left leg, so that I could pursue this dream of learning how to snowboard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After that, he returned to Steamboat and the STARS program and, for the first time ever, got on a snowboard using a prosthetic. After two days, it was settled: He wanted to snowboard. Elliott reached out to former Olympian Erin Nemec, who he met in Steamboat, to ask for advice on what to do next.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe gave me that self-belief that I could really do it,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cHer seeing my potential really gave me that spark to initiate what I wanted to become.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was encouraged to move to Park City, Utah, to train. After working two jobs and taking on keynote speaking to raise enough money, he moved to Utah. A year and a half later, he was named to the Paralympic Snowboarding Team and traveled to PyeongChang, South Korea, to compete in the 2018 Winter Paralympic Games. When he returned to Park City, he brought home two medals: a gold and a bronze. He earned bronze in snowboard cross, but he stood on top of the podium four days later after a first place finish in men\u2019s banked slalom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat year and a half leading into that was something that felt like the longest road. When I first started snowboarding, I remember having this drive and this feeling I was really channeling something deep down in myself that I couldn\u2019t wait for the day to come,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the people around me were telling me, \u2018he just started snowboarding, he has a few years, he won\u2019t make this games. He has potential for Beijing 2022.\u2019 At the end of the day, there was something in me that believed and had that drive to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

His success in the sport didn\u2019t stop there, though. In March, he competed in the 2019 World Para Snowboarding Championships in Piya, Finland, where he won the snowboard cross event and took second in banked slalom. He has big plans for his position at STARS, referring to a list of 76 programs around the country he hopes to invite to Steamboat. Once the STARS Ranch opens, he wants to give as many kids around the country a chance at the same experience he had but in an accessible venue.<\/p>\n

\u201cRolling into a shower is game-changing for somebody in a chair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Elliott said the world is slowly starting to realize the importance of accessibility to people with disabilities. He wants to play a role in encouraging more inclusion in everyday tasks and help those people find independence, as he did. He\u2019ll still be competing in the World Cup circuit and training for the 2022 Paralympic Games in Beijing, something the STARS staff fully supports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have worked a very flexible schedule, so he can attain his goals as well as be employed by STARS,\u201d Taulman said. \u201cHe really embodies the mission, so when he\u2019s out there on the circuit, he\u2019s still representing STARS. We hope he goes on and brings home gold, again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elliott is a keynote speaker and will spread the message about STARS on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned that my story can help change other people\u2019s lives,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n

This story is from SteamboatPilot.com<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 The first time Noah Elliott came to Steamboat Springs, the Steamboat Adaptive Recreational Sports \u2014 STARS \u2014 program changed his life. At the time, he was a teenager battling osteosarcoma bone cancer in his left leg. Now, he\u2019s a gold medal Paralympic snowboarder, keynote speaker and a father to a 6-year-old daughter. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-801694","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 23:28:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}