Amy Purdy
Competition | 2022
Hometown: Las Vegas, Nevada
School Name: Adaptive Action Sports
Growing up in Las Vegas as an avid snowboarder, Amy Purdy was 19 years old when she contracted bacterial meningitis. The disease led to septic shock necessitating amputation of both legs below the knee. In addition, she lost both kidneys, her spleen, and the hearing in her left ear. Doctors gave Purdy a 2% chance of survival. Two years later, she received a kidney transplant from her father.
Amy designed and built her own prosthetic snowboard feet, enabling her to return to the sport she loved and setting the stage for her Paralympic dreams. She began snowboarding seven months after she received her prosthetic legs and a year after her legs were amputated, Amy finished third in a snowboarding competition at Mammoth Mountain. She then entered the USASA National Snowboarding Championship, where she won medals in three events.
In 2005, Amy founded Adaptive Action Sports (AAS) with her future husband Daniel Gale. AAS opened doors for individuals with physical disabilities, enabling them to participate in action sports, mainly snowboarding. As a result, snowboarding was included for the very first time in the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia, with Amy making history by winning the inaugural bronze medal for Team USA. She then went on to compete in the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, earning a silver and bronze medal.
Days after she stepped off the Paralympic podium, she stepped onto the dance floor as the first Paralympic athlete to compete on the
TV show “Dancing With the Stars”. With her partner Derek Hough, they went all the way to the finals coming in runner-up.
Amy continues to inspire today as a motivational speaker and advocate for the role of inclusive sports in promoting healthy lifestyles.
