An athletic strawberry blond with deep dimples when she smiled, Elliott was approximately five feet tall in the seventh grade, making her somewhat larger than most of the boys in her class at Will Rodgers Intermediate Junior High School and the boys at the BMX track.
Elliott was named Most Valuable Player in both basketball and volleyball during her senior year of high school.
At a 1981 UBR National held in Laguna Seca, California, she raced in the 14-and-over girls' competition, despite being only 11 years old at the time, "because the 12-to-13 is too easy".
She also frequently participated in, and sometimes won, the "Trophy Dash"—the final event of a race, in which the winners of two closely related age classes and the three skill classes[nb 1] participate in an exhibition race that has no effect on the rider's yearly ranking.
Unlike the UBR and the National Bicycle League (NBL), the ABA did not allow girls to compete in the boys' Expert Class until 1984.
She also won a few Trophy Dash races on her 20-inch bike at the national level; she won the 11-12 Trophy Dash at the 1983 ABA Cajun Nationals in Shreveport, Louisiana in January 1983, overpowering 12 Expert winner Jason Griggs, who had dominated his age class throughout 1982 and 1983.
[5] Elliott excelled in Quarter Pipe BMX freestyle trick riding, which at the time was unusual for a girl.
Elliott retired from twenty-inch BMX racing early in the 1986 season, right after the ABA Supernationals (which were held on January 26 and 27).
"[6] (Elliot misspoke about-or BMX Action misprinted-the number of consecutive number-one plates she was going for.
Elliott did race in one National in 1986: the ABA Supernationals in late January, where she placed fourth in the 15 & Over Girls class.
"[9] In 1996, she would co-author a book called The Athlete's Guide to Sponsorship during her subsequent mountain-bike racing career.
[16] Whatever the reason, prior to the Fall Nationals she was seen practicing at the Roseville, California Oak Creek BMX track.
In her first year of racing mountain bikes, Elliott became the national dual slalom champion, the first such championship of many.
However, she did not race in the revived NBL "supergirls" class, its professional girls' division, when it was recreated in 1997, dedicating her time to dual slalom and downhill MTB.
As she was starting her MTB racing career, she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in business (with honors), concentrated in real estate and finance, in 1994.[where?
The last two years of MTB I was already phasing into my new career with studying for the California Real Estate Broker’s Exam.
So, I was definitely ready when the time was right.A few years after she retired from Mountain Bike competition, she considered another comeback in BMX, despite her career-ending back injury.
Although I was able to bring the skills right back and it almost seemed possible, my spinal cord was not appreciating the pounding and pulling.
Primary sponsorships can be verified by BMX press coverage and sponsor's advertisements at the time in question.
National Off Road Bicycle Association (NORBA) ESPN X-Games Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) I crashed big time in Mammoth, Ca.
However, I didn’t know I broke my back until a couple days later when my right leg started having partial paralysis.
I never had surgery, but most likely will need surgery later on in life.Minicycle/BMX Action & Super BMX: Bicycles and Dirt: ABA Action, American BMXer, BMXer (The official ABA membership publication under three names): Mountain Biking: NORBA News: Bike Racing Nation: (Official Publication of USA Cycling)