TEDxOrangeCoast
Amy Purdy: Living beyond limits
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When she was 19, Amy Purdy lost both her legs below the knee. And now ... she's a pro snowboarder (and a killer competitor on "Dancing with the Stars"!). In this powerful talk, she shows us how to draw inspiration from life's obstacles.
Amy Purdy - Pro snowboarder
Amy Purdy became a professional snowboarder despite losing both her legs to meningitis. She encourages us to take control of our lives, and our limits. Full bio
Amy Purdy became a professional snowboarder despite losing both her legs to meningitis. She encourages us to take control of our lives, and our limits. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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If your life were a book
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and you were the author,
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how would you want your story to go?
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That's the question
that changed my life forever.
that changed my life forever.
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Growing up in the hot Last Vegas desert,
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all I wanted was to be free.
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I would daydream about
traveling the world,
traveling the world,
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living in a place where it snowed,
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and I would picture all of the stories
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that I would go on to tell.
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At the age of 19,
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the day after I graduated high school,
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I moved to a place where it snowed
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and I became a massage therapist.
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With this job all I needed were my hands
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and my massage table by my side
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and I could go anywhere.
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For the first time in my life,
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I felt free, independent
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and completely in control of my life.
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That is, until my life took a detour.
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I went home from work early one day
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with what I thought was the flu,
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and less than 24 hours later
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I was in the hospital
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on life support
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with less than a two percent chance of living.
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It wasn't until days later
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as I lay in a coma
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that the doctors diagnosed me
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with bacterial meningitis,
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a vaccine-preventable blood infection.
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Over the course of two and a half months
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I lost my spleen, my kidneys,
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the hearing in my left ear
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and both of my legs below the knee.
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When my parents
wheeled me out of the hospital
wheeled me out of the hospital
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I felt like I had been
pieced back together
pieced back together
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like a patchwork doll.
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I thought the worst was over
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until weeks later when I saw my new legs
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for the first time.
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The calves were bulky blocks of metal
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with pipes bolted together for the ankles
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and a yellow rubber foot
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with a raised rubber line
from the toe to the ankle
from the toe to the ankle
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to look like a vein.
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I didn't know what to expect,
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but I wasn't expecting that.
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With my mom by my side
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and tears streaming down our faces,
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I strapped on these chunky legs
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and I stood up.
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They were so painful and so confining
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that all I could think was,
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how am I ever going to travel the world
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in these things?
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How was I ever going to live
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the life full of adventure and stories,
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as I always wanted?
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And how was I going to snowboard again?
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That day, I went home, I crawled into bed
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and this is what my life looked like
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for the next few months:
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me passed out, escaping from reality,
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with my legs resting by my side.
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I was absolutely physically
and emotionally broken.
and emotionally broken.
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But I knew that in order to move forward,
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I had to let go of the old Amy
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and learn to embrace the new Amy.
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And that is when it dawned on me
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that I didn't have to be five-foot-five anymore.
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I could be as tall as I wanted!
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(Laughter) (Applause)
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Or as short as I wanted,
depending on who I was dating.
depending on who I was dating.
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(Laughter)
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And if I snowboarded again,
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my feet aren't going to get cold.
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(Laughter)
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And best of all, I thought,
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I can make my feet the size
of all the shoes
of all the shoes
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that are on the sales rack.
(Laughter)
(Laughter)
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And I did!
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So there were benefits here.
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It was this moment that I asked myself
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that life-defining question:
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If my life were a book
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and I were the author,
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how would I want the story to go?
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And I began to daydream.
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I daydreamed like I did as a little girl
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and I imagined myself
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walking gracefully,
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helping other people through my journey
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and snowboarding again.
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And I didn't just see myself
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carving down a mountain of powder,
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I could actually feel it.
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I could feel the wind against my face
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and the beat of my racing heart
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as if it were happening
in that very moment.
in that very moment.
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And that is when a new chapter
in my life began.
in my life began.
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Four months later
I was back up on a snowboard,
I was back up on a snowboard,
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although things didn't go
quite as expected:
quite as expected:
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My knees and my ankles wouldn't bend
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and at one point I traumatized
all the skiers on the chair lift
all the skiers on the chair lift
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when I fell and my legs,
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still attached to my snowboard —
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(Laughter) —
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went flying down the mountain,
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and I was on top of the mountain still.
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I was so shocked,
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I was just as shocked as everybody else,
and I was so discouraged,
and I was so discouraged,
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but I knew that if I could find the right pair of feet
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that I would be able to do this again.
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And this is when I learned
that our borders
that our borders
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and our obstacles
can only do two things:
can only do two things:
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one, stop us in our tracks
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or two, force us to get creative.
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I did a year of research,
still couldn't figure out
still couldn't figure out
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what kind of legs to use,
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couldn't find any resources
that could help me.
that could help me.
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So I decided to make a pair myself.
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My leg maker and I
put random parts together
put random parts together
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and we made a pair of feet
that I could snowboard in.
that I could snowboard in.
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As you can see,
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rusted bolts, rubber,
wood and neon pink duct tape.
wood and neon pink duct tape.
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And yes, I can change my toenail polish.
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It was these legs
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and the best 21st birthday gift
I could ever receive —
I could ever receive —
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a new kidney from my dad —
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that allowed me to follow my dreams again.
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I started snowboarding,
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then I went back to work,
then I went back to school.
then I went back to school.
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Then in 2005 I cofounded
a nonprofit organization
a nonprofit organization
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for youth and young adults
with physical disabilities
with physical disabilities
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so they could get involved
with action sports.
with action sports.
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From there, I had the opportunity to go to South Africa,
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where I helped to put shoes
on thousands of children's feet
on thousands of children's feet
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so they could attend school.
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And just this past February,
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I won two back-to-back
World Cup gold medals —
World Cup gold medals —
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(Applause) —
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which made me
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the highest ranked
adaptive female snowboarder
adaptive female snowboarder
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in the world.
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Eleven years ago, when I lost my legs,
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I had no idea what to expect.
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But if you ask me today,
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if I would ever want to
change my situation,
change my situation,
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I would have to say no.
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Because my legs haven't disabled me,
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if anything they've enabled me.
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They've forced me to rely on my imagination
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and to believe in the possibilities,
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and that's why I believe
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that our imaginations can be used as tools
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for breaking through borders,
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because in our minds,
we can do anything
we can do anything
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and we can be anything.
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It's believing in those dreams
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and facing our fears head-on
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that allows us to live our lives
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beyond our limits.
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And although today is about
innovation without borders,
innovation without borders,
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I have to say that in my life,
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innovation has only been possible
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because of my borders.
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I've learned that borders are where the actual ends,
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but also where the imagination
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and the story begins.
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So the thought that I would like
to challenge you with today
to challenge you with today
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is that maybe instead of looking at
our challenges and our limitations
our challenges and our limitations
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as something negative or bad,
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we can begin to look at them as blessings,
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magnificent gifts that can be used
to ignite our imaginations
to ignite our imaginations
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and help us go further
than we ever knew we could go.
than we ever knew we could go.
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It's not about breaking down borders.
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It's about pushing off of them
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and seeing what amazing places
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they might bring us.
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Thank you.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Amy Purdy - Pro snowboarderAmy Purdy became a professional snowboarder despite losing both her legs to meningitis. She encourages us to take control of our lives, and our limits.
Why you should listen
After bacterial meningitis took her legs, Amy Purdy struggled with depression, and only beat it when she learned to accept her new reality, but not any limitations. After being unable to find prosthetics that would allow her to snowboard, she built her own. Today, she is a world champion female adaptive snowboarder. In 2005, she co-founded Adaptive Action Sports, a non-profit dedicated to introducing people with physical challenges to action sports.
Amy Purdy | Speaker | TED.com