Available to book
Amy Purdy
Adversity
Innovation
Social Impact
Amy Purdy inspires organizations as a Paralympic medalist and resilience keynote speaker. She works with corporate and conference audiences on adversity, adaptive performance, and personal reinvention, drawing on three Paralympic medals, a New York Times best-selling memoir, and recognition as one of the Top 50 Global Keynote Speakers by Real Leaders.
Paralympics
Sport
Athlete
Olympian
Winter Sports
Sports Leadership
Author
Motivational
Inspirational Female
Attitude
Inclusion
Female Empowerment
International Day of Disability
TEDx
Amy Purdy is a three-time Paralympic medalist in snowboard cross and a New York Times best-selling author. At 19, Amy contracted meningococcal meningitis, leading to septic shock, the amputation of both legs below the knee, and a kidney transplant from her father.
Three months after her transplant, Amy entered the USASA National Snowboarding Championship and won medals in three events. She went on to co-found Adaptive Action Sports, a nonprofit supporting athletes with disabilities, and became one of the most decorated adaptive snowboarders in Team USA history. She has since toured with Oprah Winfrey, appeared in a Superbowl commercial narrated by Muhammad Ali, and partnered with the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee on health and inclusion initiatives.
Amy's story extends beyond sport. She was the runner-up on season 18 of Dancing with the Stars, competed on The Amazing Race with her husband, and published the memoir On My Own Two Feet, now available in ten languages. Her keynotes draw on this combination of athletic achievement and personal reinvention to show audiences how adversity can be met with resilience and creativity. Real Leaders named Amy among its Top 50 Global Keynote Speakers in 2023.
Organisations including Pfizer and QuickBooks book Amy for her ability to connect her story directly to an audience's own challenges.
Topics, sessions and talks
Amy Purdy lost both legs at nineteen, received a kidney transplant from her father, and three months later stood on a podium at a national snowboarding championship. In this session she shares the exact mindset shift that turned the worst moment of her life into its most defining one. Drawing on her journey from hospital bed to Paralympic medals, Amy shows audiences how to move through fear, reimagine what is possible, and build a life that exceeds the one they had planned.
When the plan you had disappears, the question is not how to get it back but how to build something better. Amy Purdy guides audiences through a practical framework for adapting to radical change, grounded in her experience designing her own prosthetic legs, co-founding a national non-profit, and competing at the highest levels of para-sport. This session is for teams navigating disruption, leaders managing uncertainty, and anyone who needs to find momentum when the ground shifts beneath them.
Amy Purdy didn't just adapt to life on prosthetics, she literally designed her own prosthetic legs to compete at the highest level of para-sport. In this session, she draws on that creative process and her work with the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee to explore how inclusive design principles and adaptive thinking drive innovation in any organization. The session challenges audiences to see diversity of experience not as a compliance requirement but as a competitive advantage, one that, when developed deliberately, produces better decisions, more creative solutions, and stronger teams.
Three Paralympic medals and a New York Times bestseller back Amy's keynotes, alongside ongoing work with the World Health Organization and the International Olympic Committee on health and inclusion. That mix of athletic credibility and active policy involvement gives audiences substance beyond a typical motivational talk.
Testimonials
Featured Projects
often considered together
Chris Mazdzer
High Performance
Team Building
Dealing With Pressure
Stef Reid
Resilience
Growth Mindset
High Performance
Ellie Simmonds
Diversity and Inclusion
Disability Awareness
Resilience
frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Amy Purdy structures her sessions around a personal narrative arc — moving from medical crisis to competitive sport to organisational application — and pairs this with a practical framework drawn from her direct experience designing her own prosthetic legs and co-founding a non-profit, translating each stage of her story into a transferable principle for the audience.
Amy Purdy speaks on overcoming adversity and radical change, inclusive design and adaptive thinking, and resilience and high performance. She is a three-time Paralympic medalist in snowboard cross who, three months after losing both legs and receiving a kidney transplant, won medals in three events at the USASA National Snowboarding Championship.
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