Amy Purdy
Top-Ranked Snowboarder, Dancer, Model, Actress, and Designer
Sunday, October 8 • 10:15–11:30 am
Through her powerful story, Amy Purdy has shown audiences around the world how to use challenges to pushpast their limits and live a life without barriers. Overcoming obstacles is something she knows well. Recognized past their limits and live a life without barriers. Overcoming obstacles is something she knows well. Recognized as the top-ranked adaptive snowboarder in the U.S., she lost her legs to bacterial meningitis when she was 19.Originally given less than a 2 percent chance of survival, she became a three-time World Cup Para-Snowboard winner, the 2014 Paralympic bronze medalist and the author of the New York Times best-seller On My Own Two Feet. She will take the stage at NECA 2017 Seattle to talk about her experiences beating her odds, battling depression, and rising to accept her new reality – but not any limitations.
Purdy has evolved into a terrific inspirational and motivational speaker who has shared her story with millions of people globally. She has been a featured presenter at both TEDx and POP Tech. Her TED talk is distributed to new, incoming TED speakers as the No. 1 recommended sample presentation, and it has been viewed millions of times and translated into multiple languages. Purdy’s creativity, positive outlook, and never-give-up attitude have opened countless doors. She competed on Dancing with the Stars and was the show’s first double amputee contestant. In 2005, Purdy co-founded Adaptive Action Sports, a non-profit dedicated to introducing people with physical challenges to action sports.