USA
Leader profile
Three-time Paralympic snowboarding medalist, Dancing with the Stars runner-up, author and co-founder of Adaptive Action Sports.
Profession
Paralympic Snowboarder (retired), Motivational Speaker, Author, Co-founder of Adaptive Action Sports, Actress
Known for
Adaptive sports, Para snowboarding, Paralympic movement, Snowboard cross, Prosthetics, Resilience, Overcoming adversity, Motivational speaking, Dance, Bacterial meningitis recovery, Organ donation, Non-profit leadership
Born
November 7, 1979
Died
Birthplace
Las Vegas, United States
Based in
Colorado
Nationality
USA
On this page
Amy Purdy is an American Paralympic snowboarder, author and motivational speaker. At 19 she contracted bacterial meningitis, which led to the amputation of both legs below the knee, the loss of her spleen and both kidneys, and hearing loss in her left ear. Her father later donated a kidney to her.
She returned to snowboarding on prosthetic feet she helped design, and in 2005 she co-founded Adaptive Action Sports with Daniel Gale, a nonprofit that helps people with permanent physical disabilities take part in action sports.
Purdy won bronze in snowboard cross at the Sochi 2014 Paralympics, then silver in snowboard cross and bronze in banked slalom at PyeongChang 2018. She finished runner-up on season 18 of Dancing with the Stars and wrote the memoir On My Own Two Feet.
Why they matter
Amy Purdy helped bring snowboarding into the Paralympic movement as an athlete and as co-founder of Adaptive Action Sports. She won three Paralympic medals and, after PyeongChang 2018, was described as the most decorated U.S. Paralympic snowboarder at the time.
Her runner-up finish on Dancing with the Stars, her TED talk and her performance at the Rio 2016 Paralympics opening ceremony brought adaptive sport to a mainstream audience. Through her speaking, her books and the Amy Purdy Mobility Foundation, she continues to promote access to mobility equipment and sport for people with disabilities.
Amy Michelle Purdy was born on November 7, 1979, in Las Vegas, Nevada. She grew up active and outdoors, and snowboarding became her main passion as a teenager.
Before her illness she was working as a massage therapist and spending as much time as she could on the mountain. Her identity as an athlete would later become a key source of motivation during her recovery.
At 19, Purdy was rushed to hospital in septic shock and diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis, a bacterial infection of the blood. Doctors gave her a 2% chance of survival.
The infection cut off circulation to her extremities. Both legs were amputated below the knee, her spleen was removed, she lost both kidneys and she lost hearing in her left ear.
She spent the next period on dialysis. A week before her 21st birthday, her father donated a kidney to her in what her official biography describes as the first laparoscopic kidney transplant in Nevada.
Purdy had to learn to walk again on prosthetic legs. Standard prosthetics were not built for the ankle movement that snowboarding requires, so she worked on her own solutions.
She built her own snowboard feet, and three months after her kidney transplant she won medals in three events at the USASA national snowboarding championships.
The difficulty of finding information and equipment for adaptive snowboarding shaped the advocacy work she would do next.
Purdy met Daniel Gale at an adaptive snowboarding workshop in 2002. In 2005 they co-founded Adaptive Action Sports (AAS), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit now based at Copper Mountain, Colorado. The couple married in 2015.
AAS gives youth, young adults and wounded veterans with permanent physical disabilities the chance to take part in action sports such as snowboarding and skateboarding. It runs recreation programs as well as elite training for athletes aiming for the U.S. Paralympic Snowboard Team.
AAS has been credited with helping get snowboarding added to the Paralympic program, where it debuted at the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics.
Purdy competed internationally in para-snowboard cross, winning gold at the 2011 Winter Games New Zealand. When snowboarding made its Paralympic debut at Sochi 2014, she won the bronze medal in women’s snowboard cross for Team USA.
At the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympics she added a silver medal in snowboard cross and a bronze in banked slalom. With three medals she became, at the time, the most decorated U.S. Paralympic snowboarder.
She later retired from competitive snowboarding and continues to coach through AAS.
Days after her Sochi medal, Purdy joined season 18 of Dancing with the Stars in 2014, partnered with Derek Hough. She was the first Paralympian to compete on the show, and the pair finished as runners-up after ten weeks.
She returned for season 27 in 2018, dancing in a trio with Tinashe and Brandon Armstrong. Earlier, in 2012, she and Daniel Gale had competed on season 21 of The Amazing Race.
Her television appearances, along with features such as the 2014 ESPN Body Issue, introduced adaptive athletes to a much wider audience.
Purdy is a keynote and corporate speaker. Her 2011 talk “Living beyond limits” at TEDxOrangeCoast was later published by TED and remains one of her best-known talks.
In 2014 she published the memoir On My Own Two Feet: From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life, written with Michelle Burford and published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins. It became a New York Times bestseller and has been published in ten languages.
In 2016 Oprah Winfrey named her to the SuperSoul 100, a list of visionaries and thought leaders.
Purdy has long worked with brands on disability visibility. She became an amputee advocate for prosthetics maker Freedom Innovations in 2003 and appeared in a Toyota Camry Super Bowl advertisement in 2015, as well as campaigns for brands such as Coca-Cola.
At the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Paralympics she performed a dance with a KUKA industrial robot. After a severe leg injury in 2019, she set up the Amy Purdy Mobility Foundation, which funds wheelchairs, active prosthetics and other mobility equipment.
In 2026 she released her second book, Bounce Forward, a guide to resilience built around 21 practical tools.
Won bronze in women's snowboard cross at the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics, the first Games to include snowboarding.
Won silver in snowboard cross at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Paralympics.
Won bronze in banked slalom at PyeongChang 2018, making her the most decorated U.S. Paralympic snowboarder at the time.
Named one of espnW's Impact 25, an annual list of athletes and leaders making an impact on women's sport.
Named to Oprah Winfrey's inaugural SuperSoul 100 list of visionaries and influential leaders.
At 19, Amy Purdy contracted bacterial meningitis (Neisseria meningitidis), which led to septic shock. Doctors gave her a 2% chance of survival.
She survived but lost both legs below the knee, her spleen, both kidneys and the hearing in her left ear.
Yes. Meningitis caused her kidneys to fail, and about two years after her illness her father donated one of his kidneys to her.
Amy Purdy won three Paralympic medals. At the 2014 Sochi Paralympics, where snowboarding made its Paralympic debut, she won bronze in snowboard cross.
At the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympics she won silver in snowboard cross and bronze in banked slalom. She retired from competition in 2022.
Adaptive Action Sports is a non-profit organization that Amy Purdy co-founded with Daniel Gale, now her husband, in 2005. It runs camps, clinics and events that help people with permanent physical disabilities take part in action sports such as snowboarding and skateboarding.
The idea came from Purdy’s own difficulty finding information on how to snowboard again with prosthetic legs.
Amy Purdy competed on season 18 of Dancing with the Stars in 2014, partnered with Derek Hough. She was the first double amputee to compete on the show and finished as runner-up.
She returned in season 27 in 2018 for a trio dance.
At the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Amy Purdy performed a dance with a KUKA industrial robotic arm, a performance that drew wide international attention.
Yes. Her memoir, On My Own Two Feet: From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life, was published by HarperCollins in 2014. It tells the story of her illness, recovery, snowboarding career and time on Dancing with the Stars.
Yes. Amy Purdy and Daniel Gale competed together on season 21 of The Amazing Race in 2012 and finished 10th of 11 teams.
Her TED Talk, Living Beyond Limits, describes how she rebuilt her life after losing her legs and returned to snowboarding.
Its central message is that limits can become starting points for creativity, and that people can find new ways forward when circumstances change.
Their work
Organizations
Adaptive Action Sports
Amy Purdy Mobility Foundation
Books
On My Own Two Feet: From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life
Bounce Forward: 21 Tools to Live a Life Beyond Limits
Events and programs
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