NSB Logo Amy Purdy Amy Purdy

Amy Purdy

Speaker

Denver, Colorado, United States

3x Paralympic Snowboarding Medalist, Actress & Model

Amy Purdy has defied the odds throughout her life to accomplish some extraordinary things. She grew up with a passion for snowboarding and travel, and despite fighting for her life and losing both of her legs below the knees to Bacterial Meningitis at the age of 19, her passion for life carried her not only to the upper echelons of athletics, but onto the dance floor of Hollywood and well, well beyond. Amy’s beauty inside and out has made her a household name through countless interviews, articles and public events. She has inspired millions of people through her TED talk, motivational speeches and social media platforms with her “Live Inspired” message.

Keynote Speeches

Virtual Keynotes & Webinars
Contact us for more information about this speaker & their virtual presentations. Click here for some of the most popular formats for virtual events.
Living Beyond Limits

If your life were a book and you were the author, how would you want your story to go?

That’s the question that changed Amy’s life, forever. 

In this session, Amy discusses the power of imagination and the pivotal role it plays in our lives: it allows us to break down borders, to move beyond our circumstances, and to create and constantly progress. Rather than being determined by external circumstances, Amy explains how it is our choices that shape out our lives. 

After losing both her legs at the age of 19, Amy shares how she was forced to rely on her imagination and to believe in the possibilities, which is why she believes that imagination can be used as tools for breaking through borders; because in our minds, we can do anything.

It’s believing in those dreams and facing our fears head on that allows us to live our lives beyond limits. 

On My Own Two Feet: From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life

Amy Purdy encourages us to take control of our lives, and our limits.

The world fell in love with Amy as the incredible girl with bionic legs who managed to out-dance her competitors all the way to the season 18 finale of Dancing with the Stars.

She reveals the powerful, moving story of her personal spiritual awakening as a result of a sudden and often fatal blood infection that caused her to lose both of her legs. Despite her grim prognosis, she was determined to not just beat the odds and walk again but to create a life filled with bold adventures, big dreams, and boundless vitality—and share that spirit with the world.

Amy seized her second chance at life and earned a bronze medal in adaptive snowboarding at the 2014 Paralympic Games.

Her story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the capacity we all have to defy expectations and rewrite our own stories.

Platform Plus Presentations

Unique formats and ways to connect with audiences.
Self-Acceptance Workshop
This workshop is designed to help you overcome negative self-talk, self-doubt, and insecurity, in order to develop a deep and lasting sense of self-acceptance.

Audience reviews:

  • Amy Purdy is far more than an Olympic champion. She is a pioneer and a beacon of strength. Her honest and sharply written memoir leaves me feeling as uplifted as I do when I spend time in her presence. She brings the same passion, courage and open-heartedness to these pages that she brings to each day she navigates the world—one carbon-fiber and steel foot at a time. - Author of 'Eat Pray Love'

Speaker Biography

At 19, after experiencing flu-like symptoms, Amy, a massage therapist, was rushed to the hospital in a state of septic shock. En route, she experienced respiratory and multiple organ failure which caused her to lose circulation to her extremities.

When she entered into the hospital she was given less than a 2% chance of survival, put on life support and placed into a coma. After multiple blood transfusions, and the removal of her ruptured spleen, doctors diagnosed Amy with Meningococcal Meningitis, a highly deadly bacterial blood infection.

Due to septic shock, doctors had to amputate her legs below the knee. She later received a donated kidney from her father a week before her 21st birthday.

After going through this life-altering experience, Amy challenged herself to move on with her life and attain goals that even those who have both legs struggle to achieve. Just three months after her kidney transplant, Amy entered the USASA National Snowboarding Championship where she won medals in three events. Today, she is the most decorated Paralympic snowboarder in U.S. history and a three-time Paralympic Medalist.

Amy’s creativity, positive outlook, and her never-give-up attitude have opened doors to many other opportunities including being featured in a Madonna music video and a lead actress role in an award-winning film. She and her husband were featured on the TV show The Amazing Race and most recently Amy came in 2nd Place on the hit ABC show Dancing with the Stars with her partner Derek Hough. She is an experienced model who has worked on several creative photography projects and has been featured in countless magazines including The 2014 ESPN Body Issue and People magazine. She has appeared in extensive advertising campaigns for Toyota, The Hartford, P&G, Duracell, Kelloggs, Element, Coca-Cola and others. 

Amy has evolved into a powerful motivational keynote speaker who has literally been seen by millions of people and invited to speak to audiences around the world from small groups to the largest corporations in the world.

She’s toured the country sharing her remarkable story alongside Oprah Winfrey as part of Oprah’s The Life You Want Tour. She was featured in a SuperBowl commercial which has since been named one of the Top 20 SuperBowl Commercials Of All Time.

Her autobiography, On My Own Two Feet, quickly became a New York Times Best Seller and is now published around the world in ten different languages.

Amy is also a Founder of Adaptive Action Sports (AAS) with her husband that trains athletes with disabilities in action sports. Their organization is top in the US for developing Paralympic Snowboarders. AAS has partnered with ESPN and runs “adaptive” action sport competitions at the summer and winter ESPN X Games. These events were instrumental in getting adaptive snowboarding added to the 2014 Paralympic Games.