Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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INSPIRATION GENERATION LEFT: Amy Purdy cofounded Adaptive Action Sports, which creates athletic programs for people with physical disabilities. BELOW: Purdy at 2011's World Snowboard Federation ParaSnowboard World Cup, which she won. Homegrown Hero S triking and statuesque, Amy Purdy becomes the center of attention the moment she walks into a room. It's little surprise that Madonna tapped her to star in a music video, that she delivered a TEDx talk that went viral, or that her charisma landed her in a recent season of the reality show The Amazing Race. And let's not forget her day job as a highly decorated professional snowboarder. And she's done it all without legs below the knee. A Las Vegas native, Purdy was a natural athlete as a teen and aspired to circumnavigate the globe, snowboarding the world's top mountains while making money as a massage therapist. But her journey was sidetracked in 1999 when she developed bacterial meningitis. She spent three months in the hospital, and septic shock cost her both legs below the knee, her kidneys, and her spleen. "I was given less than a two percent chance of survival," Purdy says. "But the entire time I was in the hospital, I thought, 'When am I going to snowboard again and how am I going to do this?'" A mere six months later, weighing only 85 pounds and still receiving dialysis, she was back on the mountain. "It wasn't this amazing power moment," Purdy says with a chuckle. "I got up just to see if I could do it 66 and realized that I could. I just needed to get the right legs." She worked with a Las Vegas –based prosthetist to create what she calls "Frankensteined" legs that would give her the support and movement she needed to return to racing form. For the past five years, Purdy has been a member of the World Cup circuit, competing in boardercross, a race that pits several riders against each other on the same trail. At press time, she was ranked number one in the US and had three gold and three silver World Cup medals. In a testament to her strength and prowess, Purdy is also the only double-leg amputee racing internationally. But the ultimate prize is, of course, the Paralympics. In fact, the Sochi games in February will be the first to include snowboarding. Purdy's current regimen includes dry land training and working with a personal coach, as well as traveling with the US team to Austria. "My goal is to win a gold, absolutely," she says. "I've got my work cut out for me, but I've done well up until this point, and I've got a lot of confidence going into this season. I'm absolutely not letting my legs determine where I place." We wouldn't bet against her. Visit NBCOlympics.com and TeamUSA.org. V PHOTOGRAPHY BY HANNAH JOHNSTON/GETTY IMAGES (WORLD CUP); MICHAEL SCOTT SLOSAR (BENCH) PARALYMPIC SNOWBOARDER AND LAS VEGAN AMY PURDY IS GEARING UP FOR THE SOCHI GAMES. BY JULIET IZON VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 066_V_SP_InspirationGeneration_Dec13.indd 66 11/19/13 2:26 PM