Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / REWIND: Amy Purdy, Paralympic Medalist & Best-Selling Author

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REWIND: Amy Purdy, Paralympic Medalist & Best-Selling Author · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: You could be anything you want to be at any
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Speaker 1: time you want to be. There are no rules.
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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, Emily Abadi here, Welcome to rewind on Hurdle
0:24
Speaker 2: five days of episodes from the Hurdle Vault. I cannot
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Speaker 2: even tell you how often I get requests for interviews
0:31
Speaker 2: with some of the amazing, amazing people that I have
0:34
Speaker 2: already had the privilege of sitting down with, and sometimes
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Speaker 2: I'm able to do a round two around three. But
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Speaker 2: that is what this week is all about. It's me
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Speaker 2: bringing you some of my favorite conversations back to the
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Speaker 2: top of the feed from the last five years. Now.
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Speaker 2: I'll be honest, it's easy for me to forget that
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Speaker 2: there are new people joining the hurdle community every single week,
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Speaker 2: which means that there is a lot of content to
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Speaker 2: catch up on helping ever one on their journey to
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Speaker 2: live happier, healthier, more motivated lives. Today you will be
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Speaker 2: hearing from best selling author, keynote speaker, three time Paralympic.
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Speaker 3: Medalist Amy Party.
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Speaker 2: This conversation originally aired in July of twenty eighteen, so
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Speaker 2: it's definitely a throwback. Make sure you're following along with
1:22
Speaker 2: Hurdle over on Social's at Hurdle podcast. I am over
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Speaker 2: at Emily a body and with that, let's rewind, let's
1:29
Speaker 2: get to hurdling.
1:36
Speaker 3: Today.
1:36
Speaker 4: I'm sitting here with Amy Purty. She's a Paralympic medalist
1:40
Speaker 4: and a champion snowboarder, a total badass. Thanks so much
1:43
Speaker 4: for sitting down with me today.
1:45
Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks for having me.
1:46
Speaker 2: I have to admit I'm kind of in awe of
1:49
Speaker 2: this opportunity. I was listening.
1:56
Speaker 4: I feel like everyone that I admire has sat down
1:58
Speaker 4: with you, and the thought that I'm sitting here right
2:01
Speaker 4: now in Vale, Colorado and sitting down with you is
2:03
Speaker 4: just really special. Before we even really kick this off,
2:08
Speaker 4: can you talk to me about what it was like
2:10
Speaker 4: when you realize that you were in Oprah's book?
2:12
Speaker 1: Okay, yes, crazy, I'm sure real like that. It's so
2:19
Speaker 1: crazy because I feel like that was like a massive
2:23
Speaker 1: I don't know, and not an accomplishment, but for me,
2:26
Speaker 1: just one of the biggest things that I've been a
2:28
Speaker 1: part of and to be thought of from Oprah and
2:32
Speaker 1: she hands selected who is going to be in her book,
2:34
Speaker 1: and to be one of those people in her book,
2:36
Speaker 1: it's you know, I felt like I made it I
2:41
Speaker 1: did it, whatever that means, I made it.
2:43
Speaker 3: It's like adult goals. It's so funny.
2:45
Speaker 4: It's like you get on the podium in the Olympics, right,
2:48
Speaker 4: and that's amazing.
2:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I feel like I can put it on
2:50
Speaker 1: my resume, Like, well, I'm an Oprah's book, So that
2:53
Speaker 1: tells you anything.
2:54
Speaker 4: I also do speaking engagement. Talk to me a little
2:57
Speaker 4: bit about how you got into snowboarding in the first book.
3:01
Speaker 1: So, I grew up in Las Vegas, which most people
3:03
Speaker 1: don't think of a professional skier snowboarder coming from Las Vegas,
3:07
Speaker 1: but we actually had ski resorts just around where I lived,
3:12
Speaker 1: actually forty five minutes from my house, we had a
3:13
Speaker 1: ski resort. And so I used to ski when I
3:17
Speaker 1: was small. I was never good at it, and then
3:20
Speaker 1: I started snowboarding when I was fifteen. And I really
3:23
Speaker 1: just found myself when I started snowboarding, because in high school,
3:27
Speaker 1: I mean, we all know how challenging high school can be.
3:30
Speaker 1: My sister was a cheerleader and super popular, and you know,
3:34
Speaker 1: dated dated like the head football player and homecoming queen
3:39
Speaker 1: and that whole thing, and so I didn't know. I
3:42
Speaker 1: just didn't know who I was. I didn't know if
3:44
Speaker 1: that's what I was trying to do, is follow her footsteps,
3:47
Speaker 1: and just didn't know where I fit in high school
3:50
Speaker 1: and I ended up meeting a group of skateboarders who
3:54
Speaker 1: also were snowboarders and artists and musicians, and they took
3:58
Speaker 1: me snowboarding one day and fell in love with it,
4:00
Speaker 1: and I picked it up really fast, and yeah, I
4:03
Speaker 1: just kind of I found my people and then found
4:06
Speaker 1: the space that I wanted to be in. And I
4:09
Speaker 1: loved snowboarding. I loved being outside, being with my friends.
4:14
Speaker 1: I loved that there weren't any rules, you know, like
4:19
Speaker 1: like a team sport, there's all these rules, and snowboarding
4:21
Speaker 1: it's like you can just you can create whatever trick
4:24
Speaker 1: you want, do whatever you want. So we'd go up
4:26
Speaker 1: to the mountains after school and build little jumps and
4:30
Speaker 1: just play and just play.
4:32
Speaker 4: How soon after getting started with snowboarding, did you realize
4:35
Speaker 4: that you were really good at it?
4:37
Speaker 1: You know what. I wouldn't say that I was really
4:40
Speaker 1: good at it, but I was. I was. I was
4:42
Speaker 1: natural when it came to just picking picking it up.
4:45
Speaker 1: So some people, you know, have to go through lessons,
4:47
Speaker 1: and like you have to when I teach snowboarding. Now,
4:51
Speaker 1: I tell people they need four days, like four good
4:53
Speaker 1: solid days, and then you got it. Whereas for me,
4:56
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, I think it's because these guys, all
5:00
Speaker 1: these guys who I had crushes on, took me up
5:02
Speaker 1: to the mountain and they were like, follow us, and
5:05
Speaker 1: that's it. They didn't they didn't teach me how to snowboard.
5:08
Speaker 1: They were just like, keep up. And so I remember
5:11
Speaker 1: getting off the chair lift and them just taking off,
5:14
Speaker 1: and it was a powder day, it had there was
5:17
Speaker 1: a couple inches of snow, so I could see their
5:19
Speaker 1: tracks and I just thought, okay, I'm just going to
5:21
Speaker 1: stay in their tracks, and so I ended up just
5:24
Speaker 1: picking it up. By the end of the day, I
5:25
Speaker 1: was carving and maybe not keeping up with the boys,
5:28
Speaker 1: but definitely working my way down the mountains.
5:30
Speaker 3: As things you do when you're chasing a cute guy.
5:32
Speaker 1: Honestly, I know, it's so funny. It was full motivation
5:36
Speaker 1: for me.
5:36
Speaker 4: So you're a teenager and you're getting into snowboarding and
5:40
Speaker 4: you start to realize that something feels a little off.
5:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, actually, so all of this happened very fast,
5:48
Speaker 1: within twenty four hours, So I was a massage therapist.
5:52
Speaker 1: And the reason I became a massage therapist was because
5:55
Speaker 1: I wanted to travel the world in snowboard and I
5:58
Speaker 1: wanted to have a job that would travel with me.
6:00
Speaker 1: So I thought, all I need is my hands, my
6:02
Speaker 1: massage table. I can go anywhere. And my plan was
6:06
Speaker 1: to live in different ski resorts and snowboard and massage basically.
6:10
Speaker 1: And so and I loved my job as a massage therapist,
6:13
Speaker 1: and I was actually very good at that as well.
6:16
Speaker 1: And because I just yeah, I realized I enjoyed, I
6:21
Speaker 1: guess healing, you know, the healing arts and helping people
6:24
Speaker 1: one way or another. And so anyways, I went to
6:29
Speaker 1: work one day. I got hired at this amazing spa
6:32
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas, a world class spa. I was the
6:34
Speaker 1: youngest massage therapist hired. And I went to work one
6:38
Speaker 1: day and I felt great in the morning, just like
6:41
Speaker 1: any nineteen year old would feel. And then halfway through
6:44
Speaker 1: the day I started to feel really tired. I remember
6:48
Speaker 1: massaging this guy and just being absolutely exhausted, and I
6:51
Speaker 1: was thinking, God, this guy is just draining me. And
6:54
Speaker 1: so after I took a break after that massage, thinking well,
6:58
Speaker 1: maybe I have the flu, maybe I have a cold
7:00
Speaker 1: or something. So I just went to the lunch room
7:02
Speaker 1: and took a break. But I started to feel worse.
7:06
Speaker 1: I started to feel like my neck was ache and
7:08
Speaker 1: my back was achy, and started thinking that I had
7:10
Speaker 1: the flu. So I decided to go home from work early.
7:14
Speaker 1: And that night I had a temperature of one hundred
7:16
Speaker 1: and one, so that's like typical flu like symptoms. Next morning,
7:20
Speaker 1: my temperature actually broke, so I was supposed to go
7:23
Speaker 1: out of town with my family, but I just told
7:26
Speaker 1: them don't worry about me because I probably have some
7:28
Speaker 1: twenty four hour flu or something, and that's all we
7:30
Speaker 1: thought that I had. But that afternoon, instead of getting better,
7:34
Speaker 1: I started to get worse. And at one point, I
7:37
Speaker 1: remember I was laying in my parents' bed. That's always
7:41
Speaker 1: where I went when I was sick, and they had
7:43
Speaker 1: a TV in their room, so I was laying in
7:45
Speaker 1: their bed and I was so tired and I fell asleep,
7:50
Speaker 1: and I fell into the deepest sleep that I've ever
7:52
Speaker 1: felt like I couldn't wake myself up. I kept trying
7:55
Speaker 1: to open my eyes and I kept trying to wake up,
7:58
Speaker 1: and I couldn't. And then suddenly I heard this voice say, Amy,
8:03
Speaker 1: get up and look in the mirror, and I immediately
8:06
Speaker 1: opened my eyes. I looked around. There was nobody there.
8:10
Speaker 1: And as I was sitting up, I started to realize
8:13
Speaker 1: that something was really wrong because my heart was beating
8:15
Speaker 1: out of my chest. I was shaky, I was dizzy,
8:18
Speaker 1: but I was so weak, and it probably took me
8:21
Speaker 1: a good like three to five minutes just to get
8:23
Speaker 1: into a seated position. And then I scooted to the
8:25
Speaker 1: edge of the bed. I put my feet on the
8:27
Speaker 1: floor and I stood up, and I realized that I
8:29
Speaker 1: couldn't fill my feet. And when I looked at the floor,
8:32
Speaker 1: I saw that my feet were purple, and then I
8:34
Speaker 1: saw that my hands were purple. And then I looked
8:37
Speaker 1: at my reflection in the mirror and I saw that
8:38
Speaker 1: my nose, my chin, my cheeks were purple as well.
8:41
Speaker 1: So I went into a full panic. At the same time,
8:45
Speaker 1: I felt like I was dying. I knew that I
8:48
Speaker 1: was dying so randomly. Right then, my cousin walked in
8:53
Speaker 1: because my mom had called her to come check on me,
8:56
Speaker 1: and yet she walked in. She said, oh my god,
8:58
Speaker 1: it looks like you're dead. And I said, I'm dying.
9:01
Speaker 1: I know, I am. I got to get to the hospital.
9:02
Speaker 1: So she rushed me to the hospital. And that was
9:06
Speaker 1: the beginning of a very you know, intense and crazy journey.
9:10
Speaker 4: Were you kind of keeping it together when you're like
9:14
Speaker 4: understanding what's happening?
9:15
Speaker 3: Are you just hysterical?
9:17
Speaker 1: I was that hysterical. I kept it together. Actually, I
9:19
Speaker 1: was like, which is crazy? My cousin she had no
9:23
Speaker 1: gas in her car. She was like, I got to
9:25
Speaker 1: go to a gas station. I was like, there's not time.
9:27
Speaker 1: I said, take my truck. Well, she didn't know how
9:29
Speaker 1: to drive a stick shift, and I was like, well,
9:30
Speaker 1: I'll teach you. Like I was like, whatever we got
9:33
Speaker 1: to do to get to the hospital right now. And
9:34
Speaker 1: I don't know why we didn't think of calling nine
9:36
Speaker 1: one one right, but I just thought it would be faster.
9:39
Speaker 3: She was already there.
9:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, like, let's get in a car and go and
9:42
Speaker 1: if we break down, we'll figure it out. But on
9:44
Speaker 1: the way to the hospital, my lungs were collapsing, so
9:48
Speaker 1: I had to like talk myself through every breath I took,
9:51
Speaker 1: Like I was like, breathe, breathe, breathe, because my I mean,
9:55
Speaker 1: I was I was dying. I'm lucky that I survived,
9:59
Speaker 1: just that, you know, next hour.
10:02
Speaker 3: So what's happening here?
10:04
Speaker 1: So I was going into septic shock because I contracted
10:08
Speaker 1: meninjacaffl meningitis, which is a bacteria and it's spread like
10:12
Speaker 1: the flu or the cold. So just you know, maybe
10:16
Speaker 1: somebody sneezed on me and the elevator at work, and
10:18
Speaker 1: that's how I got it, because it's it's airborne in
10:21
Speaker 1: the sense that you know, if somebody sneezes or coughs,
10:23
Speaker 1: then that bacteria can get on your nose and mouth
10:26
Speaker 1: and that's how it gets into your body. But the
10:28
Speaker 1: thing is that this bacteria, it's called Niceria nmenetitis, I
10:34
Speaker 1: think it's what it's called, but that bacteria is actually
10:38
Speaker 1: very common. One in four people are carriers of it.
10:42
Speaker 1: They're just not sick from it because our bodies are
10:44
Speaker 1: immune to it and our bodies know to fight it off.
10:46
Speaker 1: It's almost like staff in the sense that like everybody
10:49
Speaker 1: has staff on them, but not everybody gets sick, you know,
10:52
Speaker 1: from the staph infection. So it's similar to that where
10:55
Speaker 1: it's really rare to get sick from it, but when
10:58
Speaker 1: you do, it's deadly, and so yeah, something like eighty
11:01
Speaker 1: five percent deadly in the first twenty four hours of
11:05
Speaker 1: your first flu like symptom. And the hardest part with
11:09
Speaker 1: it too, is you think you have the flu. So
11:11
Speaker 1: there was nothing telling me that I had anything else
11:14
Speaker 1: but the flu at that point until suddenly I was
11:16
Speaker 1: in septic shock and going into cardiac arrest and everything,
11:20
Speaker 1: and so when I entered the hospital, they put me
11:23
Speaker 1: on life support right away. They had no idea what
11:25
Speaker 1: they had what I had. They thought I had toxic
11:27
Speaker 1: shock syndrome at first, so you know, they did blood
11:31
Speaker 1: cultures and they had to put all these ivs in me,
11:33
Speaker 1: and they ended up filling me up with oh my gosh,
11:37
Speaker 1: fifty pounds of water. Yeah. So I went in at
11:40
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty pounds and by the time my
11:42
Speaker 1: parents saw me, I was one hundred and seventy five pounds.
11:45
Speaker 1: So completely looked totally different because I had no pressure
11:49
Speaker 1: in my veins, so they had to just keep filling
11:52
Speaker 1: me with water so they could get medication in me
11:54
Speaker 1: and stuff, and they didn't think I was going to
11:55
Speaker 1: make it through the night. They told my family they
11:58
Speaker 1: needed to say goodbye. So my family brought in like
12:01
Speaker 1: every friend I had, and everybody was surrounding me saying goodbye,
12:04
Speaker 1: and I remember thinking it was very it was very
12:08
Speaker 1: much an outer body experience for me because I remember
12:11
Speaker 1: I was gasping for air and I knew I was dying,
12:14
Speaker 1: yet at the same time, there was a part of me.
12:16
Speaker 1: It's almost like a part of me detached from my body,
12:19
Speaker 1: because there's a part of me that was kind of thinking, like,
12:24
Speaker 1: all these people think I'm dying, but like there was
12:29
Speaker 1: something comical about it, which is so weird in my mind.
12:31
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, guys, like, don't you think
12:34
Speaker 1: this is a little extreme. Everybody's saying they're goodbyes at
12:37
Speaker 1: the same time I'm gasping for air or trying to breathe.
12:40
Speaker 1: So it was just this interesting, like outer body, you know,
12:44
Speaker 1: surreal experience.
12:46
Speaker 3: And when does it turn the corner? When are you
12:48
Speaker 3: not dying anymore?
12:49
Speaker 1: Took a couple of weeks, so I that next week
12:53
Speaker 1: or two was the worst.
12:56
Speaker 3: Yeah.
12:56
Speaker 1: I was put on life support, put into an induced coma.
12:59
Speaker 1: My parents had no idea if I'd wake up again.
13:01
Speaker 1: At that point, my spleen burst. I was rushed into
13:04
Speaker 1: this emergency surgery and the doctors didn't think I was
13:07
Speaker 1: going to survive the surgery at all. This my spleen
13:10
Speaker 1: bursts inside of me and they had like five minutes
13:12
Speaker 1: to get it out or something crazy, and so, and
13:14
Speaker 1: I had a near death experience when that happened. And
13:17
Speaker 1: then just all my organs were hemorrhaging, except for my
13:21
Speaker 1: heart and my brain, which is amazing to me, like
13:24
Speaker 1: the most the two most important organs were okay, and
13:29
Speaker 1: so yeah, it was very touch and go for about
13:33
Speaker 1: two weeks there. But then as I started to wake
13:35
Speaker 1: up from this coma, that's when I realized that my
13:39
Speaker 1: hands and my feet were in big trouble because of
13:43
Speaker 1: the septic shock that I went into. I lost circulation
13:45
Speaker 1: to my hands and my feet, so my fingers were black,
13:49
Speaker 1: the soles of my feet were black, my feet were purple,
13:53
Speaker 1: my toes were black. And basically, when you're in septic shock,
13:58
Speaker 1: your body pulls blood from your extra bodies to save
14:00
Speaker 1: your organs. So that's what was happening, and that's why
14:03
Speaker 1: I saw That's why I couldn't feel my feet, you know.
14:05
Speaker 1: And I woke up that one day, I couldn't feel
14:07
Speaker 1: my feet, I couldn't fel my hands because I was
14:09
Speaker 1: starting to go into septic chalk before I got to
14:11
Speaker 1: the hospital, and then it just the They were doing
14:13
Speaker 1: everything they could to save my hands and my feet,
14:17
Speaker 1: and so I was very aware that that there's the
14:21
Speaker 1: possibility that I was going to lose my legs, and
14:23
Speaker 1: we thought I was losing my hands as well. But
14:26
Speaker 1: I got very lucky that my hands turned around. It's yeah,
14:32
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing because the doctor said that most likely
14:36
Speaker 1: my fingers were just going to fall off because they're
14:39
Speaker 1: that bad. They were just black, and so to have
14:42
Speaker 1: my hands start to recover was amazing. But my feet
14:47
Speaker 1: continue to get worse, and so I ended up losing
14:51
Speaker 1: both my legs below the knees and having my legs amputated,
14:54
Speaker 1: well kind of just above the ankles amputated.
14:57
Speaker 4: It's really beautiful that you can be going through that
15:00
Speaker 4: experience and still have the frame of mind to say
15:05
Speaker 4: that I'm so thankful I have my hands.
15:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think that's what you know, got me
15:11
Speaker 1: through some of my toughest days. There was gratitude because
15:16
Speaker 1: it could have been so much worse, and I knew
15:18
Speaker 1: it could be worse, like I not only was I
15:21
Speaker 1: possibly loosing my hands, but also my nose was really bad,
15:24
Speaker 1: Like they had a plastic surgeon come in and show
15:27
Speaker 1: me a mirror and say, like, we're going to have
15:29
Speaker 1: to reconstruct your nose because it was just black, and
15:32
Speaker 1: so thinking that I was going to lose, you know,
15:34
Speaker 1: part of my face and my hands and my feet.
15:37
Speaker 1: By the time I lost my feet, honestly, I thought,
15:40
Speaker 1: oh my god, that was a close one, Like I
15:42
Speaker 1: only lost my feet, Like, how lucky am I. So
15:45
Speaker 1: it's all about perspective.
15:47
Speaker 4: Right, What was it like for you when you got
15:51
Speaker 4: your first set of prosthetics?
15:55
Speaker 1: Oh so scary. That's when it got real. So I
15:58
Speaker 1: would say when I was in the hospital, I was
16:01
Speaker 1: really positive. I stayed really strong, never cried, never shed
16:05
Speaker 1: a tear.
16:06
Speaker 4: That's unbelievable. I'm like crying almost sitting there.
16:10
Speaker 1: And I think part of that was I would have
16:12
Speaker 1: never known that I was that strong. But I think
16:14
Speaker 1: part of it was I was on survival mode, so
16:18
Speaker 1: you set your emotions aside and you're doing whatever you
16:20
Speaker 1: got to do to just get through the next day.
16:23
Speaker 1: And also everybody around me was crying. Everybody around me
16:26
Speaker 1: was heartbroken, and you know, my parents went through so
16:30
Speaker 1: much and seeing their daughter lose her legs and they
16:33
Speaker 1: had no idea what my life was going to be like,
16:35
Speaker 1: and I wanted to let them know that everything was
16:37
Speaker 1: going to be okay. Like I felt like I kind
16:40
Speaker 1: of needed to be strong for everybody else too, So
16:42
Speaker 1: I think that was part of it, was just but
16:45
Speaker 1: also being grateful. Once again, I thought, oh my god,
16:47
Speaker 1: I almost died. I'm so grateful. Okay, I can handle this.
16:50
Speaker 1: And at one point I remember thinking, well, this happened
16:53
Speaker 1: to the right person because I know I can handle it,
16:56
Speaker 1: which is crazy. I didn't even know what I was
16:58
Speaker 1: dealing with.
16:59
Speaker 3: What's that saying.
17:00
Speaker 4: It's like God only gives the tough stuff to the
17:02
Speaker 4: people he knows that can handle it.
17:03
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I mean that's that's That's how I felt,
17:10
Speaker 1: Not that it was easy, not that I wasn't completely scared,
17:15
Speaker 1: but I think I had. I was forced to be
17:17
Speaker 1: in the moment, and when you're in the moment, you
17:19
Speaker 1: can't you don't have anxiety about the future. You're just
17:23
Speaker 1: trying to get through a moment to moment. So that
17:26
Speaker 1: helped me definitely emotionally. So the doctors come in with
17:30
Speaker 1: some legs, well, so I did see some prosthetic legs.
17:34
Speaker 1: When I was in the hospital, right before they amputated
17:36
Speaker 1: my legs, a prostatist came in to introduce himself, and
17:40
Speaker 1: he was this young surfer guy. He had lost his
17:42
Speaker 1: leg above the knee and a motorcycle accident. So it
17:46
Speaker 1: was nice they sent me this like young active guy
17:48
Speaker 1: so that I could see that life goes on. And
17:52
Speaker 1: he brought all these different legs and was trying to
17:54
Speaker 1: show me what, you know, prosthetics look like. And yeah,
17:59
Speaker 1: I mean I so I had seen them, and then
18:01
Speaker 1: basically I didn't get fit for my legs until after
18:03
Speaker 1: I left the hospital. So I was in the hospital
18:06
Speaker 1: for about two and a half months and then I
18:10
Speaker 1: i'd stay. Within the next like week or two, I
18:13
Speaker 1: was getting fit for my prosthetics. And then I stood
18:17
Speaker 1: up in my legs for the first time and talk
18:20
Speaker 1: to me about that. Yeah, they're so well. First of all,
18:23
Speaker 1: when he walked them in the room, I was devastated
18:27
Speaker 1: because I didn't know what I was expecting. I thought, Okay,
18:29
Speaker 1: I'm going to get my legs and go like thanks.
18:31
Speaker 1: So yeah, and he walked in with these legs that
18:34
Speaker 1: were just you know, pipes bolted together and these really
18:37
Speaker 1: bulky sockets, which is like the part that you it's
18:41
Speaker 1: customized around your limb. Yeah, and I just thought there's
18:45
Speaker 1: no way those could be my legs. Like as he
18:48
Speaker 1: was walking towards me, I'm like, you got to be
18:49
Speaker 1: kidding me, like these rubber feet, and the feet were
18:52
Speaker 1: like this yellow rubber foot, and I just thought, oh
18:54
Speaker 1: my god, like these have to be temporary. There's no
18:57
Speaker 1: way that my legs are going to look like that
18:58
Speaker 1: the rest of my life. But so that was a
19:02
Speaker 1: lot to wrap my head around. And then putting them
19:04
Speaker 1: on for the first time, they were so painful and
19:08
Speaker 1: so like confining. I felt claustrophobic because you know your
19:13
Speaker 1: calves and like basically I have ten inches below the
19:16
Speaker 1: knee and so that's where like they create the socket
19:20
Speaker 1: that you step into and lock in. And but like
19:23
Speaker 1: your calves and stuff aren't used to being confined like
19:26
Speaker 1: that in carbon fiber, and I just thought, oh my god,
19:29
Speaker 1: this is going to be so hot. And not only that,
19:32
Speaker 1: so you kind of lock into the legs and then
19:34
Speaker 1: you have to pull this like heavy sleeve over your
19:37
Speaker 1: knees and then if your legs don't fit right, you
19:39
Speaker 1: have to put these wool socks on, and I'm living
19:42
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. I'm like, oh my god, this is
19:44
Speaker 1: going to be the hottest, you know thing ever. And Yeah,
19:49
Speaker 1: when I stood up, I just thought, there's no way
19:51
Speaker 1: I'm going to be able to travel and snowboard and
19:55
Speaker 1: do all the things that I wanted to do.
19:57
Speaker 4: Talk to me a little bit about snowboarding, because I
20:00
Speaker 4: feel like that must have been something that was kind
20:02
Speaker 4: of on your mind from the second they were like,
20:04
Speaker 4: we aren't going to be able to keep your legs.
20:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was on my mind absolutely from that moment on.
20:11
Speaker 1: For sure. When I go back into my medical records,
20:14
Speaker 1: pretty much every day, I'm asking the doctors about snowboarding, Right,
20:19
Speaker 1: so when can I snowboard again? Have you seen some
20:21
Speaker 1: of the two prosthetic legs snowboards? So what do you
20:22
Speaker 1: think about snowboarding.
20:23
Speaker 4: And what was the climate of the sport at that time?
20:26
Speaker 4: Was anyone with prosthetic snowboarding?
20:28
Speaker 1: No? And actually it was very new. It was very
20:30
Speaker 1: new because there wasn't even a big female competitive space.
20:34
Speaker 1: There were some I looked up to, some amazing women
20:37
Speaker 1: like Barrett Christie was like my idol, and snowboarding but
20:40
Speaker 1: it was very, very small just for women in the
20:43
Speaker 1: first place, let alone for someone with a disability. So I,
20:46
Speaker 1: you know, I'd never even seen anybody with a prosthetic leg,
20:49
Speaker 1: let alone snowboarding with a prosthetic leg. So I really
20:53
Speaker 1: had to kind of figure it out myself. But I
20:57
Speaker 1: think the challenge of that of wanting to snowboard again
21:00
Speaker 1: and trying to find a way is what it kept
21:04
Speaker 1: me moving forward. And when I was in the hospital,
21:07
Speaker 1: actually when they wheeled me into the surgical room to
21:11
Speaker 1: amputate my legs, I was so scared, had no idea
21:15
Speaker 1: what my life was going to be like, could not
21:17
Speaker 1: wrap my head around what I was going to be
21:20
Speaker 1: dealing with. But I gave myself three goals, and one
21:25
Speaker 1: of them was that I had never missed a season
21:27
Speaker 1: of snowboarding, so I wasn't going to miss that season,
21:30
Speaker 1: so I just I knew that I would snowboard that
21:34
Speaker 1: year and try to figure it out. And then another
21:37
Speaker 1: goal was that when I figured all this out, I
21:39
Speaker 1: wanted to help other people. And the other one was
21:43
Speaker 1: that I wasn't going to feel sorry for myself, that
21:46
Speaker 1: no matter how things go, how bad things get, that
21:49
Speaker 1: I wasn't a victim, and I wasn't going to feel
21:51
Speaker 1: sorry for myself, and so setting those goals really helped
21:55
Speaker 1: me that way. When I woke up and my legs
21:57
Speaker 1: were gone, you know, I still had these goals that
21:59
Speaker 1: i'd set to move forward, and so snowboarding was one
22:02
Speaker 1: of them. And I started doing a ton of research
22:06
Speaker 1: when I got home from the hospital. The Internet was
22:10
Speaker 1: brand new at that time, kind of because we're talking
22:12
Speaker 1: like maybe eighteen years ago, and so I started, you know,
22:17
Speaker 1: just kind of googling, which I don't even know if
22:19
Speaker 1: it was Google at that time, but typing in like
22:22
Speaker 1: amputee snowboarder, snowboarder with prosthetic legs, disabled snowboarder, like trying
22:27
Speaker 1: to figure out what kind of feet were out there,
22:28
Speaker 1: because I knew I needed a special type of foot
22:31
Speaker 1: because the feet that I was walking and had zero
22:33
Speaker 1: movement at all. And with snowboarding you actually use your
22:37
Speaker 1: ankles and all the little bones and balancing, you know,
22:40
Speaker 1: parts of your feet so much. And I couldn't find anything.
22:45
Speaker 1: I ended up trying to snowboard and just the feet
22:48
Speaker 1: that I had, and it was disastrous, Like my ankles
22:52
Speaker 1: went to bend and I fell and at one point
22:55
Speaker 1: my legs came off, and there was just all these hurdles.
22:58
Speaker 1: You know that you have to just try it to
23:01
Speaker 1: figure out what it's going to be like.
23:04
Speaker 4: And were you just putting your prosthetic legs into traditional
23:08
Speaker 4: boots and bindings.
23:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I just put my normal boots on my
23:12
Speaker 1: normal board, my normal setup. You know, at that point,
23:15
Speaker 1: wouldn't have had any idea of how to customize anything
23:18
Speaker 1: because I hadn't even tried it yet. So I really
23:20
Speaker 1: just needed to start somewhere. And that's actually a good
23:25
Speaker 1: message that I try to get across at some points
23:27
Speaker 1: as well. It's just like, you got to start somewhere, right,
23:30
Speaker 1: You have to like just begin even if everything's wrong,
23:33
Speaker 1: then you can figure out what to do to make
23:35
Speaker 1: it right. So yeah, so I just went up with
23:38
Speaker 1: my sister and a friend, and I remember walking in
23:41
Speaker 1: my snowboard boots and it felt so weird, and just
23:44
Speaker 1: every bit of it felt so born. And I think
23:47
Speaker 1: when I got in the chair lift and going up
23:49
Speaker 1: to snowboard for the very first time is when fear
23:53
Speaker 1: set in for the first time of what if I
23:55
Speaker 1: can't do this? Like what if I am going to
23:57
Speaker 1: find out in the next five minutes that this is
23:59
Speaker 1: based impossible. And that's pretty much what happened, because you know,
24:05
Speaker 1: it was just kind of disastrous. My ankles didn't bend,
24:09
Speaker 1: my legs didn't stay on. It was painful, but it
24:14
Speaker 1: also gave me something to work with where I thought, Okay,
24:16
Speaker 1: if I if I can figure out a way to
24:18
Speaker 1: keep these legs attached, but I can figure out the
24:21
Speaker 1: right ankles or feet that move in the way that
24:24
Speaker 1: I need to, then I can do this again.
24:26
Speaker 4: And were you seeking out specialists in this and prosthetics
24:31
Speaker 4: to help you accomplish this?
24:32
Speaker 1: So when I went home from snowboarding that day, that's
24:37
Speaker 1: I started doing research and calling every adaptive ski school
24:42
Speaker 1: asking them if they've ever worked with an ampute snowboarder,
24:45
Speaker 1: which at that time they said no, and they said
24:47
Speaker 1: most of the time, if you're a double leg amputee,
24:49
Speaker 1: we put you in a monoski. And I thought, well,
24:52
Speaker 1: I'm not a skier and I want to use my legs.
24:55
Speaker 1: I don't want to take my legs off and sit
24:57
Speaker 1: in a monoski like I want a snowboard, and it
24:59
Speaker 1: said that was the answer that I got constantly was like, no,
25:03
Speaker 1: we've we've never worked with an ampute snowboarder before. And
25:06
Speaker 1: so then I started calling leg manufacturers and asking them
25:10
Speaker 1: and you know, just whatever I could do. And my
25:13
Speaker 1: kind of I guess breakthrough was my brother in law
25:17
Speaker 1: had seen this guy on There used to be this
25:21
Speaker 1: kind of action sport TV show or a TV channel
25:24
Speaker 1: called Blue Torch. You remember Blue Torch was like all
25:27
Speaker 1: action sports space. Well, my brother in law was watching
25:31
Speaker 1: that and saw this guy snowboarding and then at the
25:35
Speaker 1: bottom of the run he pulled his pant leg up
25:37
Speaker 1: and he had a prosthetic leg, and so he videotaped
25:41
Speaker 1: this and sent it to me and I watched it,
25:44
Speaker 1: and as soon as I got finished watching it, I
25:46
Speaker 1: googled Blue Torch TV and there was a phone number
25:49
Speaker 1: and I called and the first guy who answered, I
25:51
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, you guys just aired somebody who has
25:53
Speaker 1: a prosthetic leg and snowboarded. Do you know what his
25:56
Speaker 1: name is or do you know what kind of leg uses?
25:58
Speaker 1: And the guy who answered, he said, Oh, that's Stain Maller.
26:01
Speaker 1: That's my best friend. So here's his phone number, and
26:04
Speaker 1: so I called him. Like so within minutes of seeing him.
26:07
Speaker 1: I called him and I was like, Hi, my name
26:10
Speaker 1: Sammy Purdy, and I had two prosthetic legs and I
26:12
Speaker 1: saw you snowboard and all I want to know is
26:14
Speaker 1: what kind of legs you used? And he ended up
26:17
Speaker 1: hooking me up with this company who I ended up
26:20
Speaker 1: sending a letter to as well, like he kind of
26:23
Speaker 1: introduced me to the company, and then I sent this letter,
26:26
Speaker 1: and in this letter, I said, I don't know if
26:30
Speaker 1: a double leg amputee can snowboard, but if they can,
26:34
Speaker 1: I'm going to be the one to figure it out.
26:36
Speaker 1: So if you give me your feet, then I can
26:39
Speaker 1: test this out. And feet are expensive. Prosthetic legs are expensive.
26:42
Speaker 1: My legs set up is thirty thousand dollars. So to
26:45
Speaker 1: get a pair of legs just kind of sent to
26:48
Speaker 1: you is, you know, a really big deal. And so
26:52
Speaker 1: those were the first feet that I snowboarded, and they
26:55
Speaker 1: they weren't really good. They didn't really work that well
27:01
Speaker 1: for me. I can see why they work for a
27:03
Speaker 1: single leg amputee like Fain Maller, but for a double
27:06
Speaker 1: it was still very challenging for me to ride in
27:09
Speaker 1: those feet because they had this kind of spring and
27:13
Speaker 1: every time I try to get onto my toe edge,
27:15
Speaker 1: it would spring me back, and so I knew at
27:18
Speaker 1: that point I needed my toe edge to collapse like
27:20
Speaker 1: and stay there and not spring me back. And so
27:23
Speaker 1: then but what his feet allowed me to do is
27:27
Speaker 1: meet another well, meet another snowboarder who had a prosthetic leg,
27:30
Speaker 1: and then go up and play around a little bit
27:32
Speaker 1: and do a little bit better than I did before.
27:35
Speaker 1: So this baby steps and then I ended up actually
27:38
Speaker 1: making my own pair of feet to snowboard in at
27:41
Speaker 1: that point, because I knew what I needed, and so
27:45
Speaker 1: I went to my prosthetic shop and basically told them
27:48
Speaker 1: this is you know, this is the flexion that I need,
27:50
Speaker 1: and this is how it has to feel. And so
27:52
Speaker 1: we ended up taking different parts and pieces from other
27:56
Speaker 1: legs and just getting really creative, Like we made these
27:59
Speaker 1: Forinkenstein's feet because there's duct tape, pink duct tape holding
28:03
Speaker 1: stuff together. And I put these wood wedges under the heels,
28:07
Speaker 1: which allowed me to get onto my toes a little
28:09
Speaker 1: bit better. We took this ankle from this other company
28:12
Speaker 1: and turned it backwards, and I allowed my ankle to
28:14
Speaker 1: collapse in the way I need it to. And so
28:17
Speaker 1: those feet are really what changed the game for me.
28:21
Speaker 4: I feel like I would have those feet like in
28:24
Speaker 4: a case.
28:25
Speaker 1: They're actually in the Smithsonian.
28:27
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no big deal. Yeah there's Smithsonian.
28:31
Speaker 1: I know it's kind of crazy. I'm like, I'll never
28:33
Speaker 1: get them back, but I've got pictures of them and
28:35
Speaker 1: you can visit them.
28:36
Speaker 3: That's outstanding. That's outstanding.
28:38
Speaker 4: Okay, So you get some feet that do everything you
28:40
Speaker 4: need them to do, right for the most part. Right
28:44
Speaker 4: fast forward and you're snowboarding for a while again, and
28:49
Speaker 4: you are in a position where you understand that the
28:54
Speaker 4: Olympics are kind of in your reach.
28:57
Speaker 3: Talk to me about how that all kind of unfolded.
29:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's interesting that I didn't think about ever,
29:05
Speaker 1: you know, being an Olympian until after I lost my legs.
29:08
Speaker 1: But also I think too, Snowboarding wasn't a part of
29:11
Speaker 1: the Olympic Games when I was younger, so it wasn't
29:13
Speaker 1: something that I really aspired for. And then but I
29:19
Speaker 1: saw a niche that needed to be filled. I saw
29:21
Speaker 1: that snowboarding wasn't in the Paralympic Games, and I also
29:26
Speaker 1: saw that there weren't many people snowboarding with prosthetic legs
29:29
Speaker 1: and so I would go to different events to try
29:32
Speaker 1: to meet people different like disabled ski events, and everybody
29:35
Speaker 1: would be skiing, of course, and I'd be the only snowboarder,
29:38
Speaker 1: and I wanted to be able to I guess, give
29:41
Speaker 1: the option and let people know you can snowboard on
29:43
Speaker 1: two prosthetic legs or a prosthetic leg if you want to.
29:46
Speaker 1: And so I ended up meeting my husband while I
29:49
Speaker 1: was on a snowboard trip in press Abute, Colorado, and
29:54
Speaker 1: he had this background in philanthropy and his mom actually
29:58
Speaker 1: helped us start an or organization called Adaptive Action Sports,
30:02
Speaker 1: and the whole idea was to, you know, we figured
30:04
Speaker 1: out how to get me involved in the sports that
30:06
Speaker 1: I loved, and figured out the types of equipment, and
30:08
Speaker 1: we wanted to help other people do the same. So
30:12
Speaker 1: we were a big part of helping this sport grow
30:15
Speaker 1: in the first place, like kind of creating this adaptive
30:18
Speaker 1: snowboard community, because there were people out there around the
30:21
Speaker 1: world who were snowboarding with a prosthetic leg or two,
30:24
Speaker 1: we just weren't connected. So we kind of started it
30:27
Speaker 1: as this place. The organization we started as this place
30:30
Speaker 1: where people could connect and learn about different feet and
30:33
Speaker 1: different tips and tricks, and we would create events to
30:38
Speaker 1: pool all the adaptive snowboarders together and we started getting
30:41
Speaker 1: snowboarding into different competitions. We got adaptive snowboarding into the
30:46
Speaker 1: United States of America Snowboard Associations. Yeah like competition. I
30:53
Speaker 1: guess you can say they work with all able bodied athletes.
30:56
Speaker 1: But we created an adaptive snowboard division to that, and
31:01
Speaker 1: the idea was just to help grow this community of
31:04
Speaker 1: adaptive snowboarders. And then my husband was able to get
31:08
Speaker 1: snowboard adaptive snowboarding into the ESPN Winter X Games and
31:13
Speaker 1: we ran that, I believe for three years and that
31:16
Speaker 1: was a huge platform for us because we were riding
31:18
Speaker 1: on the biggest snowboard course in the world with all
31:23
Speaker 1: the pros and able to show what we were capable
31:26
Speaker 1: of and what we were able to do. And then
31:29
Speaker 1: we were part of pushing to get snowboarding into the
31:32
Speaker 1: Paralympic Games. And so that the idea of getting snowboarding
31:36
Speaker 1: adaptive snowboarding into the Olympics and Paralympics was an ongoing
31:41
Speaker 1: process for quite a few years. Like that was a
31:44
Speaker 1: goal to get snowboarding into the Paralympic Games. At some point,
31:47
Speaker 1: and in twenty eleven we found out that we had
31:51
Speaker 1: done that.
31:52
Speaker 3: What was that like?
31:54
Speaker 1: It was out of the blue, to be honest, because
31:56
Speaker 1: we were turned down so many times, and at one
32:00
Speaker 1: point we were we were sure that snowboarding was going
32:04
Speaker 1: to be in the Paralympics because there were World Cups
32:06
Speaker 1: that were happening at this point all over the world.
32:08
Speaker 1: And at that point too, I was showing up with
32:11
Speaker 1: other adaptive snowboarders. We didn't have sponsors. We were just
32:14
Speaker 1: you know, flying to New Zealand to compete in a
32:16
Speaker 1: World Cup and flying to France to compete in a
32:18
Speaker 1: World Cup, just doing this all out of our own pockets,
32:21
Speaker 1: without any real support or help. But there was a
32:25
Speaker 1: lot of us. And you were supposed to have to
32:27
Speaker 1: get snowboarding or any sport into the Olympic Games, you need,
32:31
Speaker 1: I believe, eight countries involved. They need to have athletes
32:34
Speaker 1: from eight countries, and we had that. So we were
32:37
Speaker 1: convinced that we were going to get snowboarding into the Games.
32:40
Speaker 1: And the next games were in Russia, and so even
32:45
Speaker 1: this kind of you know, Russian organizer came out and
32:49
Speaker 1: we were just waiting for him to tell us that
32:51
Speaker 1: we got it into the games, and the next morning
32:54
Speaker 1: a press release went out that snowboarding wouldn't be in
32:56
Speaker 1: the Paralympic Games. And so we all have had our
33:00
Speaker 1: you know, our hopes up for a bit there, and
33:02
Speaker 1: then I'm not sure what happened, because about eight months later,
33:06
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we got another press release that
33:08
Speaker 1: said snowboarding was in the twenty fourteen Paralympic Games. So
33:11
Speaker 1: that was crazy, that was exciting. Of course, everybody, all
33:14
Speaker 1: that adaptive snowboarders were all on the phone with each
33:16
Speaker 1: other like, oh my god, this is real, like this
33:18
Speaker 1: is like now our sport is going to be official.
33:21
Speaker 1: And so it only gave us eighteen months to prepare
33:26
Speaker 1: for the games. And at that point I was I
33:29
Speaker 1: was snowboarding competitively, but on a pretty low level, like
33:33
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't. My feet were great, but not
33:36
Speaker 1: good enough to really grow as an athlete. I needed
33:41
Speaker 1: to have different equipment, and I kind of struggled with
33:43
Speaker 1: the feed I had made to do what I want
33:46
Speaker 1: to do, and so outside, yeah, all of a sudden,
33:49
Speaker 1: I felt like I've got to be an Olympic athlete
33:51
Speaker 1: in eighteen months and ended up just focusing all my
33:56
Speaker 1: energy that direction, and literally started training every day and
34:00
Speaker 1: built like twenty pounds of muscle and got these new
34:05
Speaker 1: feet and just started competing everywhere I could and made
34:09
Speaker 1: it to the games and came home with a bronze medal.
34:12
Speaker 4: And you said, it's so casually, It's like and I
34:15
Speaker 4: added twenty pounds of muscle. Well, it just happened. I
34:18
Speaker 4: went to k I think, yeah, what do you have
34:20
Speaker 4: to do beside snowboarding to kind of make those kind
34:23
Speaker 4: of games?
34:24
Speaker 1: So I did a lot of weightlifting because I also
34:26
Speaker 1: I'm naturally pretty thin, and having two prosthetic legs, you
34:30
Speaker 1: burn up to sixty percent more calories than the average person.
34:34
Speaker 3: Wow. So because you're constantly lifting that extra weight.
34:37
Speaker 1: Working, yeah, and using other muscles to compensate. So I
34:41
Speaker 1: was really thin. I mean I was like one hundred
34:43
Speaker 1: and five pounds or something. And speed as your friend,
34:47
Speaker 1: and the more weight you have, then the faster you
34:50
Speaker 1: go on a snowboard. And so I wanted to just
34:52
Speaker 1: be the strongest that I could be, And all of
34:54
Speaker 1: a sudden, sponsors started coming out of nowhere. I got
34:57
Speaker 1: sponsored by Coca Cola, and gosh, got sponsored by Kellogg's
35:02
Speaker 1: and some of the biggest Olympic sponsors chose me to sponsor,
35:06
Speaker 1: which was amazing, and all of a sudden, I just realized, well,
35:09
Speaker 1: I have all the support in the world to be
35:11
Speaker 1: the best that I can be, and I'm going to
35:13
Speaker 1: use this time to be the best that I can be.
35:16
Speaker 1: And so I also though at that time, put a
35:19
Speaker 1: lot of pressure on myself because I had been a
35:23
Speaker 1: face to the sport and now this is our opportunity
35:28
Speaker 1: to share it with the world, and I didn't want
35:31
Speaker 1: to let anybody down.
35:33
Speaker 3: And so.
35:35
Speaker 1: There was just a lot of pressure, Yeah, a lot
35:37
Speaker 1: of pressure to represent. And also you want the Olympic
35:42
Speaker 1: and Paralympic Committee to know, like this was a good
35:44
Speaker 1: idea of getting the adaptive snowboaring in here, Like we
35:47
Speaker 1: know what we're doing, we're pros.
35:48
Speaker 2: But I think it's really beautiful that you're saying, like
35:50
Speaker 2: they chose me, like out of everyone they could have sponsored,
35:53
Speaker 2: like they chose me. Well, like, take a step back
35:55
Speaker 2: and understand that you've been putting in the work. Yeah,
35:58
Speaker 2: you know, like it didn't just happen because right out
36:00
Speaker 2: of the blue, exactly right, So.
36:02
Speaker 4: You get on the podium, which must have been outrageous.
36:06
Speaker 4: And then a few years later you do it again.
36:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. The first time was It's just
36:15
Speaker 1: really emotional because all these years went into learning to walk,
36:20
Speaker 1: learning to snowboard, trying to figure my legs, out growing
36:23
Speaker 1: the community, getting it into the games, and all of
36:26
Speaker 1: those emotions kind of came to me as I was
36:29
Speaker 1: in the stargates for my last run, like, yeah, it
36:33
Speaker 1: makes me want to cry, yeah, because it was just
36:37
Speaker 1: like I felt so grateful and like, oh my gosh,
36:40
Speaker 1: if something doesn't exist, you can create it, you can
36:43
Speaker 1: build it, you can make it happen. So I was
36:46
Speaker 1: just really proud of myself and proud of all the
36:49
Speaker 1: other athletes involved, and proud of what we built. And
36:54
Speaker 1: to try to keep those emotions together when you're competing
36:58
Speaker 1: is really hard because yours can kind of break you down,
37:02
Speaker 1: and I needed to use them to make me the
37:05
Speaker 1: strongest I've ever been, you know.
37:07
Speaker 4: And it's so beautiful that you have that kind of
37:09
Speaker 4: inner dialogue with yourself, because I think for a lot
37:12
Speaker 4: of people during really tough or stressful times, it's easy
37:16
Speaker 4: to feel overwhelmed.
37:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh absolutely, but I think too when I go
37:22
Speaker 1: back to my hospital days, I learned to compartmentalize because
37:27
Speaker 1: I had so much going on. I lost my legs,
37:29
Speaker 1: lost my kidneys, lost the hearing in my left ear.
37:31
Speaker 3: That's something we didn't touch on that. It was it
37:33
Speaker 3: two years after you lost your legs.
37:36
Speaker 1: That I had a kidney transfer. Yeah, yeah, i'd say
37:39
Speaker 1: or a year and a half after, and I lost
37:42
Speaker 1: my kidneys through the whole you know, meningitis process, because yeah,
37:45
Speaker 1: my kidneys were hit really hard. And then my dad
37:48
Speaker 1: gave me one of his kidneys about a year and
37:50
Speaker 1: a half after.
37:51
Speaker 3: That's my twenty first birthday. That's insane. Also that he
37:54
Speaker 3: was a match for you.
37:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were almost twins as far as matches go,
37:58
Speaker 1: which is really rare for parent and a child. Usually
38:01
Speaker 1: you get kind of half the genes from your mom
38:04
Speaker 1: and half the genes from your dad. But my dad
38:06
Speaker 1: and I were something like five out of six match
38:09
Speaker 1: and a twin and six out of six, so it
38:12
Speaker 1: was amazing and yeah, so yeah, there's just a lot
38:17
Speaker 1: of emotion that went into, you know, that last run
38:22
Speaker 1: that I did, and I'm so grateful I came out
38:27
Speaker 1: with the bronze medal. I was the only a double
38:28
Speaker 1: leg ampeteue competitive writer. You know, I'm running against girls
38:31
Speaker 1: who have their legs but have some sort of impairment
38:34
Speaker 1: but have their legs or have one prosthetic legs. So
38:37
Speaker 1: at that time, I was plenty happy to come in with,
38:40
Speaker 1: you know, a bronze medal, just making the podium, and
38:45
Speaker 1: but it's different that time than it was this time
38:48
Speaker 1: in Korea. So for so cheap, I put a lot
38:52
Speaker 1: of pressure on myself to represent and to represent the sport,
38:56
Speaker 1: and I was quite stressed out because of that, like
39:01
Speaker 1: constantly working on my legs and I'm a perfectionist and
39:05
Speaker 1: they weren't good enough, and I could feel what I
39:07
Speaker 1: needed my legs to do, but I did not have
39:09
Speaker 1: the equipment to do it, and so I felt like
39:10
Speaker 1: I was just I had this athlete inside of me
39:13
Speaker 1: that wanted to blossom, but my legs wouldn't let me.
39:16
Speaker 1: And so that was frustrating for me. Whereas this time
39:20
Speaker 1: actually going into the Games, I didn't put that pressure
39:23
Speaker 1: on myself. I've gone on to do so much outside
39:26
Speaker 1: of snowboarding as well, that for me, snowboarding is just
39:29
Speaker 1: one thing that I do. It's not everything. And I
39:32
Speaker 1: went in with a much more open heart and gave
39:36
Speaker 1: myself time to work on my legs and took the
39:38
Speaker 1: pressure completely off and ended up doing better than ever. Really,
39:44
Speaker 1: so it's kind of amazing how that happens.
39:47
Speaker 3: It's kind of amazing.
39:49
Speaker 4: As we both like sit here wiping tears for our face,
39:52
Speaker 4: I try to be sensitive for your time. So I'm
39:53
Speaker 4: gonna ask you two more questions. First question, best advice
39:59
Speaker 4: that you have ever been given in your career.
40:02
Speaker 1: So, outside of snowboarding, I'm a motivational speaker, and that
40:08
Speaker 1: is that's a bit more of a career for me
40:12
Speaker 1: than even snowboarding. I speak year round and the nice
40:14
Speaker 1: snowboard kind of half of the year, and so I
40:17
Speaker 1: think one of the best pieces of advice I was
40:20
Speaker 1: given was from a speaking coach. I was invited to
40:23
Speaker 1: do a TED talk and worked like crazy on this talk.
40:27
Speaker 1: Worked for three months on the short eight minute talk.
40:30
Speaker 1: Once again put tons of pressure on myself. And I
40:33
Speaker 1: had never really shared my story before, like I'd never
40:35
Speaker 1: it was so hard for me to say I have
40:38
Speaker 1: two prosthetic legs or I lost my legs, like I'd
40:40
Speaker 1: break down and cry. It was just this weird sensitive
40:43
Speaker 1: thing for me. And I remember I was backstage and
40:45
Speaker 1: I was talking to my speaking coach and I said,
40:47
Speaker 1: oh my god, what if I cry? And she's like, well,
40:50
Speaker 1: if you cry, you're meant to cry, and the rest
40:52
Speaker 1: of the audience will cry with you. And it's all
40:55
Speaker 1: about being vulnerable, Like the more vulnerable you can be,
40:59
Speaker 1: the more open we can be with each other, and
41:01
Speaker 1: that's where people connect. And so I ended up going
41:04
Speaker 1: out and doing this speech and my voice cracked and
41:07
Speaker 1: I had tears in my eyes and I look in
41:08
Speaker 1: the audience and everybody else's crying as well. And that
41:12
Speaker 1: speech ended up going viral and it completely changed my life,
41:16
Speaker 1: and I ended up going into a full international corporate
41:20
Speaker 1: speaking career, which has changed my life.
41:24
Speaker 2: How does it feel to connect? I'm breaking my own
41:27
Speaker 2: roles because now there's three questions. How does it feel
41:30
Speaker 2: to be able to connect with so many, whether it's
41:33
Speaker 2: young women or young men as well, who have disabilities
41:37
Speaker 2: of their own, and to be that kind of mentor for.
41:39
Speaker 1: That, Yeah, it's amazing. But I think what's even bigger
41:42
Speaker 1: than that is the people who reach out to me.
41:44
Speaker 1: I'd say fifty percent have disabilities, fifty percent don't have
41:48
Speaker 1: physical disabilities, but maybe have gone through something in their lives,
41:52
Speaker 1: like even a divorce. I mean, people who reach out
41:54
Speaker 1: to me are like, your story helped me get through
41:56
Speaker 1: some of the toughest times in my life, whatever that
41:58
Speaker 1: might be for them, And so it's amazing I mean.
42:02
Speaker 1: And once again going back to being vulnerable, if I
42:05
Speaker 1: didn't share kind of my deepest, darkest spaces, then I
42:09
Speaker 1: wouldn't be able to connect with all these people who
42:11
Speaker 1: are dealing with similar things. So when it comes to
42:15
Speaker 1: speaking or writing my book or even my social media,
42:19
Speaker 1: for me, I'm constantly trying to, I guess, wipe off
42:23
Speaker 1: the shell and the facade and show what's really underneath
42:28
Speaker 1: and the struggles and the challenges, and give insight on
42:32
Speaker 1: what one thing or another might be like. And it
42:34
Speaker 1: may have to do with my legs, or it may
42:36
Speaker 1: have to do with some other challenge in my life.
42:38
Speaker 1: And that's what's allowed me to connect with so many people.
42:41
Speaker 3: And be so authentic.
42:43
Speaker 4: You talk a lot about the pressures that can come
42:46
Speaker 4: with being an athlete of your level. What has been
42:49
Speaker 4: one of the most difficult, what some people might label
42:53
Speaker 4: as failures that you have encountered that has taught you
42:57
Speaker 4: the biggest lesson.
43:02
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like with snowboarding, there's constant failures,
43:06
Speaker 1: like you come and last in a World Cup, where
43:08
Speaker 1: you just you know, there's I'm not the best in
43:11
Speaker 1: the world when it comes to snowboarding. I'm really not.
43:15
Speaker 1: But I do the best I can with what I have,
43:17
Speaker 1: and oftentimes that's what gets me ahead, is just using
43:20
Speaker 1: everything I have. And so I don't know if I
43:23
Speaker 1: can say, like, because there's non stop failures, I don't
43:26
Speaker 1: think I can really pick one moment that changed my life.
43:30
Speaker 1: But I will say that outside of snowboarding, I had
43:34
Speaker 1: a major missed opportunity that felt like a failure, but
43:39
Speaker 1: that ultimately, you know, one door closed and another door opened.
43:44
Speaker 1: So I had been I've played around a little bit
43:47
Speaker 1: with acting before I became a competitive snowboarder. I lived
43:50
Speaker 1: in la and I was taking acting classes, and so
43:53
Speaker 1: it's something that's kind of always been a part of
43:55
Speaker 1: me of what I've wanted to do. And then let
43:59
Speaker 1: me think, oh it was before Sochi. It was just
44:02
Speaker 1: about six months before so Chi. I got this opportunity
44:05
Speaker 1: to work with Samuel L. Jackson on this big film
44:10
Speaker 1: Casually Yeah, and I was flown out to London and
44:15
Speaker 1: worked with Warner Brothers for a month. I was supposed
44:18
Speaker 1: to go out there just for an audition, ended up
44:19
Speaker 1: staying for an entire month and working with all the
44:22
Speaker 1: casts and basically got this role. And this role was
44:27
Speaker 1: made for me. It was amazing because I was athletic
44:29
Speaker 1: and I was fit, and I knew how to use
44:32
Speaker 1: my legs and I was actually doing a lot of
44:35
Speaker 1: martial arts on my legs and backflips all this stuff,
44:39
Speaker 1: and it all played out really well with this character
44:42
Speaker 1: that I was supposed to play. And it's called the
44:45
Speaker 1: movies called Kingsman, and so there's I think they're on
44:48
Speaker 1: the second edition of Kingsmen that have come out. But anyway,
44:52
Speaker 1: so I got this role and I was like, oh
44:53
Speaker 1: my god, this is my big break. I remember flying
44:56
Speaker 1: home first class with Champagne and just being like, oh, yeah,
45:00
Speaker 1: this is it, Like my life is amazing and it's happened.
45:03
Speaker 1: And then I come home, we have these special legs
45:08
Speaker 1: made and my bags are packed and I'm supposed to
45:11
Speaker 1: go back out to start filming and they let me go.
45:14
Speaker 1: Oh and it was massive amounts of emotion. I was
45:20
Speaker 1: so heartbroken and I had no idea, you know what,
45:25
Speaker 1: I thought, that's it. I lost my big break. I
45:28
Speaker 1: can't imagine a better role for me than this like
45:30
Speaker 1: athletic role that I was supposed to be in. And
45:32
Speaker 1: I remember I was at my prosthetic shop and my
45:34
Speaker 1: proceetus said, well, it just means that there's something better
45:37
Speaker 1: around the corner for you, and I thought, yeah, yeah, yeah,
45:40
Speaker 1: it thinks, but no, I don't think it's going to
45:42
Speaker 1: be any bigger than like this massive blockbuster film. But
45:45
Speaker 1: there was there was something bigger around the corner for me,
45:48
Speaker 1: which was Dancing with the Stars.
45:50
Speaker 4: And I cry every time I see your routine with
45:55
Speaker 4: Derek Huff.
45:56
Speaker 3: Oh, oh my god.
45:58
Speaker 1: That's it. People cry one on our happy dances, like
46:02
Speaker 1: with the Happy you know, our salsa dances. People were like,
46:05
Speaker 1: oh cry yeah.
46:06
Speaker 3: But only Human was like, yeah.
46:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, that one was That one was amazing. And I
46:12
Speaker 1: had no idea when I went on the show we
46:14
Speaker 1: would do something like that, like that, we'd actually dig
46:17
Speaker 1: that deep and be that vulnerable and create something that emotional.
46:22
Speaker 1: I thought I was going on and learning to chosh off,
46:25
Speaker 1: you know. All of a sudden, it was like I
46:27
Speaker 1: had to share like once again, kind of the deepest
46:30
Speaker 1: parts of my life and it was amazing.
46:33
Speaker 3: Was it fun to be a beginner again?
46:35
Speaker 1: It's something it was, Yeah, it was, but it was
46:37
Speaker 1: also once again tons of pressure. I mean, you're in
46:39
Speaker 1: front of millions of people every week. It was like
46:42
Speaker 1: doing the Paralympic Games every single week, like you got
46:45
Speaker 1: one shot, don't mess it up. Everybody's watching. You know,
46:48
Speaker 1: if you don't do well, you're out. So there, and
46:51
Speaker 1: I put a ton of pressure on myself because I thought,
46:55
Speaker 1: I'm I was the first double leaking amputative ever do
46:59
Speaker 1: anything like that, into be on network TV doing something
47:02
Speaker 1: like that, and I thought, I need to represent what
47:06
Speaker 1: the possibilities are. And I'm still trying to figure out
47:09
Speaker 1: week by week what the possibilities are. But I didn't
47:12
Speaker 1: want to let anybody down. I wanted to be able
47:15
Speaker 1: to show what's possible. But I didn't even know what
47:18
Speaker 1: was possible until I was in it doing it and
47:21
Speaker 1: had no idea that you know, we'd almost win and
47:24
Speaker 1: make it to the end and it would change my
47:26
Speaker 1: life forever.
47:27
Speaker 4: Once again, it's nice to have a lot of those
47:31
Speaker 4: moments throughout our lives. Right, you have one chance to
47:35
Speaker 4: put one last Instagram into the world before they completely
47:41
Speaker 4: shut your social media counts down. You have the opportunity
47:45
Speaker 4: to say one more thing to all of these people
47:47
Speaker 4: that are following you.
47:49
Speaker 3: What is it that you say to that?
47:52
Speaker 1: Jeez, I think I would say that you could be
48:00
Speaker 1: anything you want to be at anytime you want to
48:01
Speaker 1: be at. There are no rules. It's kind of cliche
48:05
Speaker 1: that we're the only ones that put limits on ourselves,
48:08
Speaker 1: but we are. It's like anything's possible if you work
48:12
Speaker 1: hard enough, if you're passionate enough, and you believe.
48:15
Speaker 4: I wish beyond wishes that we had so much more
48:18
Speaker 4: time to sit here today.
48:20
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for taking a time out every
48:22
Speaker 3: morning to hang out with me.
48:23
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming all the way out here.
48:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, dude, anytime the next time, we'll have to
48:30
Speaker 4: go do something really active and fun. Please take a
48:33
Speaker 4: moment to leave a quick review by clicking the link
48:35
Speaker 4: with the description to this episode. We all face multiple
48:38
Speaker 4: hurdles in life. I want to hear about yours. Reach
48:41
Speaker 4: out to me at Emily at Hurdle dot us. Connect
48:44
Speaker 4: with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter at Hurdle Podcast
48:48
Speaker 4: and Amy. Why don't you tell me where they can
48:50
Speaker 4: find you on social media?
48:52
Speaker 1: On social I have the same handle for Twitter, Instagram,
48:56
Speaker 1: and Facebook and it's Amy Purty Girl. Gu Are I
49:00
Speaker 1: love that pretty girl?
49:03
Speaker 4: I'm at Emily Abodi. Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys
49:07
Speaker 4: next time.