U.S. Para Snowboarder Noah Elliott is out for Revenge

The first time 2018 Paralympic Snowboarding gold medalist Noah Elliott clipped into a snowboard was a “new awakening,” according to the 27-year-old.

“It was like that this can be the new version of Noah,” he explained.

But the road to get there was just like the courses he now races down – long and winding.

Elliott grew up in St. Charles, Missouri, a town certainly not known for mountains. Instead, it consists of hills that are particularly good for skateboarding. He described the moment he picked up a board himself.

“I had a neighbor who lived right next door to me and he was in high school,” Elliott said. “We lived on a hill that funneled into a creek, and I remember going outside and watching him skateboarding down our hill. He was just making these turns and reverts. He was full-on ‘Rocket Power.’”

Elliot laughed, reminiscing about the popular kid’s cartoon that featured teenagers skating, surfing, and playing roller hockey. He knew he was hooked from that moment.

The high-schooler who looked cool prompted Elliott to ask his mom for a superstore skateboard. Soon after, he took the initiative to ask the high-schooler for one of his older professionally-made skateboards.

From that point onward, Elliott began his journey into professional skateboarding. In addition to his neighbor, he also named skateboarders Mikey Taylor, Torey Pudwill, Team USA’s Nyjah Huston and Sean Malto as inspirations. Malto’s skateboarding fame skyrocketed in Elliott’s home state.

“(I liked Malto’s) style of skateboarding and his attitude towards it,” Elliott explained. “He wanted to give back to the community, and built skate parks that were built by just skateboarders. They would build their own concrete, mix it up and build features.”

By age 15, Elliott was on his way to becoming a professional skateboarder. He had competed well at some events in St. Louis, and was in talks to fly down for a larger event in Florida. But, the teenager started to feel some leg pain.

“When I would do certain movements on my skateboard, it would really flare up and 'cause me pain,” Elliot detailed. “I was thinking it was an ACL or a meniscus. I went to my primary care physician to get it checked.”

Elliott’s entire world changed over the next 45 minutes. An X-ray highlighted a mass growing over his left knee.

“For the rest of my life, I went into a different building that I was instructed to go to,” Elliott said. “I went to the 10th floor and was met and greeted by a team of about 13 doctors…I went in thinking it was just going to be a simple fix and left finding out that I was going to be receiving chemotherapy for the next year.”

The 27-year-old said it was like “a scene out of ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’”

Amputation was not the first course of action, either. Doctors started with a knee and bone replacement. Essentially, Elliott had a prosthetic leg, but on the inside. With his length of hospital stays increasing, a nurse knew the kid who wanted to be like the teens in Rocket Power would enjoy a brand-new sport introduced to the Paralympic Games.

That’s when he discovered Para Snowboarding.

“Three American snowboarders swept the podium,” Eliott recalled. “They were all wearing prosthetic legs. So, I was immediately inspired.”

However, there were a few hills Elliott still had to navigate after that moment. First, he was still in a hospital bed, fighting cancer and enduring unimaginable sleepless nights. At one point, he could not eat and had to be fed through a tube. 

Another obstacle appeared post-recovery. Eliott was eventually invited to a camp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for children with cancer. At the camp, he was able to ask more in-depth questions about Para Snowboarding and the prosthetic equipment needed to compete in it. However, his reconstructed left leg did not have the range of motion needed to compete in Para snowboarding at a high level.

“Because I had my leg, I wasn’t allowed to ski or snowboard, even though I was dying to use one,” Elliot said. “I used a ski bike, which was really cool and fun. But, it was bittersweet.”

Right then, Elliott knew he wanted his leg amputated so that he could snowboard.

“When I went home, I knew immediately,” Elliot explained. “I said (to my parents) that I need to get surgery. I’m tired of this. My leg’s never going to get better. I need to get this fixed.”

Eliott also stated that he was in “extreme pain” for the duration of the camp due to a previously undiscovered infection. His body began rejecting the metal used to reconstruct his leg.

He endured a year of that pain before finally getting his amputation scheduled.

With the amputation complete, Elliott began scraping together the funds to move to the mountains. He acquired a job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant he frequented in St. Charles, Missouri. He also spoke in Rotary Clubs to fundraise his newfound dream. Eventually, he went back to another Para snowboarding camp, where he was finally allowed to clip into a snowboard for the first time.

A year and a half later, he won a Paralympic gold medal in the men’s banked slalom SB-LL1 classification. He also added a bronze in snowboard cross.

“My career immediately took off,” Elliot said. “It was kind of like a jump start all those years of skateboarding. I didn't even know, but I was training for becoming a snowboarder and it worked out really well.”

Elliott’s podium finishes began accumulating from there, including a world title. For the first time in his career, he saw a straight path towards winning back-to-back golds in consecutive Paralympic Games. Unfortunately, another twist appeared in his ever-evolving story.

The COVID-19 pandemic made the Paralympic schedule even more condensed than usual. For the first time in Para Snowboarding history, the world championship and Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games were separated by just one month.

“I had been dealing with a wound on my residual limb at the time,” Elliott said. “I could not get it to heal all season.”

However, withdrawing from the world championships was not an option. Elliott wanted to defend his banked slalom world title and have that momentum heading into Beijing 2022.

He completed the feat. But, the wound was getting worse.

“My leg was hurting again really badly and felt sweaty,” Elliott explained. 

Unbeknownst to Elliott, it wasn’t sweat. Instead, blood was pooling up in his prosthetic.

At this point, the defending banked slalom world champion had already qualified for Beijing 2022. So, the only option was to find a quick-fix given the short window between the events. This resulted in a pressure wound, a wound more significant for athletes with amputations.

After getting special reassurance that a surgeon would be able to fix his wound after Beijing, Elliott competed in his second Paralympic Games with “about half an inch of (his) femur bone that (he) could visually see.”

Miraculously, Elliott still finished fourth in banked slalom and sixth in snowboard cross.

“It was extremely good results, all things considered,” Elliott said modestly.

But, the pain paled in comparison to other moments in Elliott’s life. The agonizing chemotherapy treatments and being stuck in a hospital bed with a reconstructed leg that hurt every day were far worse than feeling the rush of cold air while racing down the course.

“I can't describe the feeling, besides complete freedom,” Elliott said when he’s snowboarding. “You know, I went from on crutches, not being able to walk to wearing a prosthetic, strapping into my snowboard, going like 45 miles an hour, just hauling down the hill.”

Enduring pain is now just a part of Elliott’s journey that got him to where he is now. As of February 2025, he is the back-to-back winner of both the overall and banked slalom FIS Para Snowboarding Crystal Globes once more.

Not only will Elliott be seeking a third straight world title during the 2025-26 season, but also redemption at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games.

“Italy is definitely a redemption moment for me,” he said when asked about his mindset. “It's fueling my fire each and every day, and that’s the way I’ve been treating every competition.

“I treat it as if I’m at the top of the course in Italy every day.”

While the Para snowboard circuit does have a few stops in Italy, Cortina is relatively new for all the riders. It will be an entirely new course for Elliott, who missed the lone time they’ve held a competition there during his career due to his femur injury.

“It’s sort of double redemption then,” Elliott laughed. “But on average, Italy has created pretty good courses for us. So, I’m excited to see what they build.”

Although his main focus is Para snowboard, Elliott does take time to participate in adaptive skateboarding as well. He said he still follows the team that represented the U.S. at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, and has seen the evolution of the sport firsthand.

“Some prosthetic devices have changed throughout the years,” Elliott explained. “It has made it more accessible and easier for people to get the movements they’re looking for on a skateboard. And X Games has an adaptive category. I got to be a part of it. (It’s) truly spectacular.”

And just like the Paralympians in Paris, Elliott is excited about the increase in Paralympic coverage that NBC and Peacock are going to have for Milan-Cortina 2026.

“I’m really excited because people back home will get to watch me compete,” Elliott said. “That’s always been hard. So, that’s exciting. Paris was phenomenal. They did such a great job. I watched every minute (of the Olympics and Paralympics) that I could.

“It set the bar high and I know Italy will definitely follow up. I’m excited to share our sport with the world in an even bigger way.”

Off the course, Elliott is a proud father and enjoys playing guitar and maintaining his freshwater aquarium, which includes African Cichlids and a “beautiful featherfin catfish.”

Brendan Rourke is a Digital Media Journalist that works for Team USA. Previously, he spent three years writing for the NBA's Indiana Pacers, holds a Bachelor's from UCF and a Master's from IU-Indy's Sports Capital Journalism Program.