Amy Purdy

Pro snowboarder

TED Speaker

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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.

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’s TED talk

9:44

Amy Purdy

Living beyond limits

Posted Nov 2011

More news and ideas from Amy Purdy

In Brief

A 3D printed dress for the Paralympics, biodiversity in the heart of the city, and a camera that can read a closed book

September 16, 2016

As usual, the TED community has lots of news to share this week. Below, some highlights. Man vs. machine? It took Danit Peleg just 100 hours to print the dress worn by fellow TEDster Amy Purdy in the opening ceremony of the Paralympics in Rio (if that sounds slow, consider that it took her 300 […]