Mike Elliott, an iconic Durango athlete who competed in three Olympic Games and served in the Vietnam War, died Sept. 23 at his home, surrounded by family. He was 82.
Elliott competed in the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Winter Olympics. His best finishes were 12th in the cross-country skiing 4x10 kilometer relay in Grenoble, France, in 1968; and 12th in the cross-country skiing 4x10 kilometer relay in Sapporo, Japan, in 1972.
“With regard to his competitive attitude, there was only one place that he was interested in, and that was first place. And he approached that attitude with preparation, and he was an athlete that could push himself and do what was necessary to perform at a high level,” Dolph Kuss, a longtime mentor and coach to Elliott, said.
Born in Durango on April 3, 1942, Elliot began cross-country skiing as a child and eventually graduated from Durango High School and Fort Lewis College. At FLC, Elliott won the 1965 and 1966 cross-country skiing championships and earned All-American honors each of those years.
Alan Small, a friend of Elliott’s and a fellow high-level skier, was inspired by Elliott traveling to Europe to compete. He remembered welcoming Elliot home from Finland at the airport.
“I can remember him coming down off the plane, just getting back from Europe and I looked at Mike, and I said to myself, ‘One day, I’m going to do the same thing,’” Small said. “He was really an inspiration for me, my racing and my success. … He really inspired me to go full blast and get there also. I did and it’s because of him. Had that not happened, I might not have had the inspiration to go as far as I did.”
In addition to competing in the Winter Olympics, Elliott competed in the FIS World Championships in 1962, 1966 and 1970.
Elliott put his athletic career on hold in 1968 to serve a tour of duty as an infantry officer in the United States Army, including a year in Vietnam. Elliott was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge, Vietnamese Gallantry Cross and the Bronze Star Medal for his service.
In addition to his skiing career, Elliott is cemented in Durango history for winning the first Iron Horse Bicycle Race in 1972.
After his Olympic skiing career, Elliott served on President Gerald Ford’s Presidential Commission on Olympic Sports. He gave back to Durango by serving as the head coach of the Durango Nordic Ski Club for 10 years and the executive director of Rocky Mountain Nordic for 13 years. Elliott worked in numerous positions at Purgatory Ski Resort for 25 years.
Elliott was inducted into the Fort Lewis College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1981 and became FLC’s first-ever student-athlete to achieve the distinction. He’s also a member of the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame.
Elliott met his wife, Nancy, in 1985, and they married in 1988. They had twin boys, Evan and Tad, and a daughter, Paige.
Reflecting on her first date with Mike, Nancy said he told her that he wanted an Irish wake after his death. It was a “very strange story for a first date,” she said, but Mike’s point was how much he loved Durango and how much he wanted to give back to the community.
“He wanted to go up to Greenmount (Cemetery) to join his grandparents and parents, and he wanted to be brought up in a red pickup truck, because he loved red pickup trucks,” she said.
She said Mike did not want a sad remembrance or to be eulogized. Rather, he wanted people to have a good time, sharing drinks and stories.
“He was a storyteller. He loved a good story,” she said.
Paige Elliott, Mike’s daughter, said her father was an Olympic athlete, veteran, coach, role model and mentor. But above all else, he was a father.
“The one that meant the most to him was ‘father,’” she said. “He told us that consistently throughout our life. And I think it’s really impressive for someone who’s accomplished so much to be such an oriented family man.”
Durango resident Jim Hards worked with Elliott for years at Purgatory Resort, including when the ski area was known as Durango Mountain Resort. He said Elliott was a “stellar” athlete, “community leader” and an upstanding citizen who served Durango and the nation well.
Elliott headed Purgatory’s central reservations, attracting visitors to the ski area. Hards said he, “basically initiated contact with the outside world.”
“He just was a motivator, just got people to do things and carried forth, and just a great community leader. He’ll be missed,” he said.
bkelly@durangoherald.com; cburney@durangoherald.com
