Nelson named Adaptive AOY
Water skier has been setting national records
USA Adaptive Water Ski & Wake Sports has announced that Woodland native Elisha Nelson has been selected the organization’s Female Athlete of the Year for 2020.
Also recognized as Male Athlete of the Year was Gregg Stokes from Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
“I’m really excited,” Nelson said. “It’s a big honor to win that, so it really means a lot. You have to work really hard and ski really hard for the whole year. It’s not all based on merit. It’s based on attitude
and determination as well.”
Combine a three-event skier with a determined attitude, the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lack of adaptive water ski tournaments, and you end up with three new national slalom records in a calendar year.
Adaptive water skiing is a three-event competition specifically designed for those considered “disabled.” It requires tremendous upper body strength, skillful technique, and exactness. It’s done on one or two skis depending on each athlete’s physical abilities, and skiers vie against those with similar conditions.
Because Nelson was born without a lower right arm, she’s adapted her technique to use a portion of her upper arm to wrap around a strap that pulls her behind a powerboat. She doesn’t
use any prosthetics when skiing, although she does have a prosthetic lower right arm.
Nelson, who competed in the Women’s Division 3 for able-bodied women, set her first national slalom record at the 2019 Disabled Water Ski World Championships, where she medaled in all three events and placed second overall.
“It was my first year at a world championship,” Nelson recalled. “I learned a lot and how to train and prepare for the next World’s in March 2022, in Bridgewater Australia.”
When COVID-19 forced the cancelation of regional and national adaptive tournaments in 2020, Nelson took to the ablebodied world, where she competed in Women 3, ages 35-44, in five tournaments. She broke her 2019 U.S. national A-2 slalom record twice back on July 11 and 12, 2020, at the NorCal State Championships, where she also placed first in slalom and tricks.
“All the disabled tournaments were shut down, so I couldn’t compete in any of them,” Nelson said. “It pushed me to compete with the able-bodied women and ski more in those competitions.”
At first, the shutdown was hard on Nelson, who is an essential healthcare worker. Luckily for her, when she was finally able to get back, she began training again outdoors, with a limited number of people.
“I went two months without competition,” Nelson said. “I just tried to keep training knowing when the day would come, I would be ready.”
Skiing into the 2021 ski season back on Sept. 9, 2020, Nelson set her third national record and earned a first-place finish at the Liquid Zone 2021 PorStar Record Slalom Tournament in Pleasant Grove, Calif.
Nelson’s great run continued ten days later as she placed second in slalom and first in tricks at the BAHA September Record 3 event tournament on Sept. 19 at Bell Acqua Lakes in Rio Linda, Calif.
She then backed that up with a first place in slalom at the BAHA September Record Slalom event on Sept. 20. Nelson finished 2020 with a first place in Women 3 at the NorCal MasterCraft Ball of Spray Cash Prize Tournament on Oct. 3, which was also held at Bell Acqua.
“I was basically on fire,” Nelson said. “I pushed. Pretty much every tournament I met or beat my personal best.”
Nelson actually skied with a time that would have been a world record, but it could not be officially counted because of a lack of gate cameras. She will have an opportunity to match that record over the summer.
“That was an awesome day for me,” Nelson said. “I’m still smiling thinking about it. My goal was to ski at the world record, but I actually skied above the world record.”
The next tournament season starts in June. Nelson hopes to attend the first competition on June 5. From there, she hopes to qualify with a good enought time at the July Nationals. If she does well enough, that will qualify her for the 2022 International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation Disabled Waterski Worlds in Bridgewater, Australia.