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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Emily a body here. Welcome back to another

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Speaker 1: episode of Hurdle. This week's pod is truly special. In it,

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Speaker 1: you'll meet Amy Purdy, a Paralympic medallist and snowboard champ

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Speaker 1: who is, without a doubt, one of the most down

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Speaker 1: to earth awesome humans I've ever had the fortune of interviewing.

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Speaker 1: We recorded this when I was out in Colorado at

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Speaker 1: the GoPro Mountain Games, and it was kind of surreal

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Speaker 1: when she walked into my hotel room because I had

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Speaker 1: just watched her clip on Lewis House podcast. I had

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Speaker 1: read her excerpt from Oprah's book The Wisdom of Sunday's

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Speaker 1: Peaking at clips from her time on Dancing with the Stars.

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Speaker 1: Amy's a big deal. In nineteen ninety nine, at just

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Speaker 1: nineteen years old, her whole life changed after contracting a

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Speaker 1: form of bacterial meningitis. Doctors gave her a two percent

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Speaker 1: chance of living, and due to a lack of circulation,

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Speaker 1: she lost both of her legs below the knee. The

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Speaker 1: craziest part is that she's so darned thankful for all

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Speaker 1: of it. From making her into the woman that she

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Speaker 1: is today, A lot of people would have had a

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Speaker 1: hard time keeping that same positive perspective that Amy's been

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Speaker 1: able to maintain, and that's why this episode is so epic,

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Speaker 1: and we talk about how all of that went down,

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Speaker 1: how she got back on the mountain to do a

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Speaker 1: sport that she loved and worked her tail off all

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Speaker 1: the way to the Paralympic podium, scoring bronze in twenty

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Speaker 1: fourteen and silver in twenty eighteen. There is no shortage

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Speaker 1: of inspiration to come and also a few tears from

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Speaker 1: both sides of the microphone. As always, check out Hurdle

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Speaker 1: on social at Hurdle podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Email

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Speaker 1: me if you need anything, if you want to say hi,

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Speaker 1: if you've got your own hurdle moment to share Emily

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Speaker 1: at hurdle dot us and please please, when you're done

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Speaker 1: listening to today's episode, take the time to rate and

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Speaker 1: review Hurdle in the iTunes store. It really helps the

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Speaker 1: podcast get some more visibility. Lastly, sign up for the newsletter.

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Speaker 1: Head on over to hurdle dot us slash featured, scroll

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Speaker 1: to the bottom and give me your name, your email,

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Speaker 1: and your dates. And that's it. Let's get to hurdling today.

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Speaker 1: I'm sitting here with Amy Purty. She's a Paralympic medalist

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Speaker 1: and a champion snowboarder, a total badass. Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for sitting down with me today.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: I have to admit I'm kind of in awe of

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Speaker 1: this opportunity. I was listening. I feel like everyone that

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Speaker 1: I admire has sat down with you, and the fact

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Speaker 1: that I'm sitting here right now in Vale, Colorado and

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Speaker 1: sitting down with you is just really special. Before we

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Speaker 1: even really kick this off, can you talk to me

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Speaker 1: about what it was like when you realized that you

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Speaker 1: were in Oprah's book.

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Speaker 2: Okay, yes, crazy, I'm surreal like that. It's so crazy

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Speaker 2: because I feel like that was like a massive I

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Speaker 2: don't know, and not an accomplishment, but for me, just

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Speaker 2: one of the biggest things that I've been a part

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Speaker 2: of and to be thought of from Oprah and she

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Speaker 2: hands selected who is going to be in her book

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Speaker 2: and to be one of those people in her book,

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Speaker 2: it's you know, I felt like I made it. I

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Speaker 2: did it whatever that means. I made it.

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Speaker 1: It's like adult goals. It's so funny. It's like you

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Speaker 1: get on the podium in the Olympics, right and that's amazing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I feel like I can put it on

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Speaker 2: my resume, like, well, I'm in Oprah's book, so that

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Speaker 2: tells you anything.

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Speaker 1: I also do speaking engagement. Talk to me a little

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Speaker 1: bit about how you got into snowboarding in the first place.

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Speaker 2: So I grew up in Las Vegas, which most people

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Speaker 2: don't think of a professional skier snowboarder coming from Las Vegas,

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Speaker 2: But we actually had ski resorts just around where I lived,

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Speaker 2: actually forty five minutes from my house. We had a

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Speaker 2: ski resort, and so I used to ski when I

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Speaker 2: was small. I was never good at it, and then

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Speaker 2: I started snowboarding when I was fifteen. And I really

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Speaker 2: just found myself when I started snowboarding because in high school,

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Speaker 2: I mean, we all know how challenging high school can be.

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Speaker 2: My sister was a cheerleader and super popular, and you know,

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Speaker 2: dated dated like the head football player and homecoming queen

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Speaker 2: and that whole thing, and so I didn't know. I

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Speaker 2: just didn't know who I was. I didn't know if

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Speaker 2: that's what I was trying to do, is follow her footsteps,

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Speaker 2: and just didn't know where I fit in high school.

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Speaker 2: And I ended up meeting a group of skateboarders who

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Speaker 2: also were snowboarders and artists and musicians, and they took

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Speaker 2: me snowboarding one day and I fell in love with

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Speaker 2: it and I picked it up really fast, and yeah,

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Speaker 2: I just kind of I found my people and then

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Speaker 2: found the space that I wanted to be in. And

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Speaker 2: I loved snowboarding. I loved being outside, being with my friends.

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Speaker 2: I love that there weren't any rules, you know, like

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Speaker 2: like a team sport, there's all these rules, and snowboarding

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Speaker 2: it's like you can just you can create whatever trick

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Speaker 2: you want, do whatever you want. So we'd go up

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Speaker 2: to the mountains after school and build a little jumps

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Speaker 2: and just play.

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Speaker 1: And just play. How how soon after getting started with

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Speaker 1: snowboarding did you realize that you were really good at it?

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Speaker 2: You know what? I wanted to say that I was

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Speaker 2: really good at it, but I was. I was. I

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Speaker 2: was a natural when it came to just picking picking

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Speaker 2: it up. So some people, you know, have to go

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Speaker 2: through lessons, and like you have to when I teach

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Speaker 2: snowboarding now, I tell people they need four days, like

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Speaker 2: four good solid days and then you got it. Whereas

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Speaker 2: for me, for whatever reason, I think it's because these guys,

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Speaker 2: all these guys who I had crushes on, took me

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Speaker 2: up to the mountain and they were like, follow us,

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Speaker 2: and that's it. They didn't they didn't teach me how

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Speaker 2: to snowboard. They were just like, keep up. And so

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Speaker 2: I remember getting off the chair lift and them just

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Speaker 2: taking off, and it was a powder day, it had

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Speaker 2: There was a couple inches of snow, so I could

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Speaker 2: see their tracks and I just thought, Okay, I'm just

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Speaker 2: going to stay in their tracks, and so I ended

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Speaker 2: up just picking it up. By the end of the day,

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Speaker 2: I was carving and maybe not keeping up with the boys,

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Speaker 2: but definitely working my way down the mountains.

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Speaker 1: The things you do when you're chasing a cue guy.

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Speaker 2: Honestly, I know, it's so funny. It was full motivation

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Speaker 2: for me.

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Speaker 1: So you're a teenager and you're getting into snowboarding and

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Speaker 1: you start to realize that something feels a little off.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well actually, so all of this happened very fast,

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Speaker 2: within twenty four hours. So I was a massage therapist.

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Speaker 2: And the reason I became a massage therapist was because

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Speaker 2: I wanted to travel the world in snowboard and I

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Speaker 2: wanted to have a job that would travel with me.

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Speaker 2: So I thought, all I need is my hands, my

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Speaker 2: massage table. I can go anywhere. And my plan was

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Speaker 2: to live in different ski resorts and snowboard and massage basically.

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Speaker 2: And so, and I loved my job as a massage therapist.

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Speaker 2: And I was actually very good at that as well.

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Speaker 2: And because I just yeah, I realized I enjoyed I

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Speaker 2: guess healing, you know, the healing arts and helping people

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Speaker 2: one way or another. And so anyways, I went to

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Speaker 2: work one day. I got hired at this amazing spa

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Speaker 2: in Las Vegas, a world class spa. I was the

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Speaker 2: youngest massage therapist hired. And I went to work one

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Speaker 2: day and I felt great in the morning, just like

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Speaker 2: any nineteen year old would feel. And then halfway through

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Speaker 2: the day, I started to feel really tired. I remember

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Speaker 2: massaging this guy and just being absolutely exhausted, and I

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Speaker 2: was thinking, God, this guy is just draining me. And

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Speaker 2: so after I took a break after that massage, thinking well,

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Speaker 2: maybe I have the flu, maybe I have a cold

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Speaker 2: or something. So I took I just went to the

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Speaker 2: lunch room and took a break. But I started to

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Speaker 2: feel worse. I started to feel like my neck was

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Speaker 2: zachy and my back was zachy, and started thinking that

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Speaker 2: I had the flu. So I decided to go home

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Speaker 2: from work early. And that night I had a temperature

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Speaker 2: of one hundred and one, so that's like typical flu

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Speaker 2: like symptoms. Next morning, my temperature actually broke, so I

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Speaker 2: was supposed to go out of town with my family,

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Speaker 2: but I just told them don't worry about me because

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Speaker 2: I probably have some twenty four hour flu or something,

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Speaker 2: and that's all we thought that I had. But that afternoon,

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Speaker 2: instead of getting better, I started to get worse. And

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Speaker 2: at one point, I remember I was laying in my parents' bed.

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Speaker 2: That's always where I went when I was sick, and

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Speaker 2: they had a TV in their room, so I was

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Speaker 2: laying in their bed and I was so tired and

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Speaker 2: I fell asleep, and I fell into the deepest sleep

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Speaker 2: that I've ever felt like. I couldn't wake myself up.

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Speaker 2: I kept trying to open my eyes and I kept

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Speaker 2: trying to wake up, and I couldn't. And then suddenly

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Speaker 2: I heard this voice say, Amy, get up and look

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Speaker 2: in the mirror, and I immediately opened my eyes. I

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Speaker 2: looked around. There was nobody there, and as I was

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Speaker 2: sitting up, I started to realize that something was really

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Speaker 2: wrong because my heart was beating out of my chest.

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Speaker 2: I was shaky, I was dizzy, but I was so weak.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it probably took me a good like three

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Speaker 2: to five minutes just to get into a seated position.

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Speaker 2: And then I scooted to the edge of the bed.

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Speaker 2: I put my feet on the floor and I stood up,

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Speaker 2: and I realized that I couldn't feel my feet. And

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Speaker 2: when I looked at the floor, I saw that my

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Speaker 2: feet were purple. And then I saw that my hands

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Speaker 2: were purple. And then I looked at my reflection in

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Speaker 2: the mirror, and I saw that my nose, my chin,

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Speaker 2: my cheeks were purple as well. So I went into

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Speaker 2: a full panic. At the same time, I felt like

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Speaker 2: I was dying. I knew that I was dying so randomly.

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Speaker 2: Right then, my cousin walked in because my mom had

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Speaker 2: called her to come check on me. Wow, and yet

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Speaker 2: she walked in. She said, oh my god, it looks

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Speaker 2: like you're dead, and I said, I'm dying. I know,

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Speaker 2: I am. I got to get to the hospital. So

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Speaker 2: she rushed me to the hospital, and that was the

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Speaker 2: beginning of a very you know, intense and crazy journey.

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Speaker 1: Were you kind of keeping it together when you're like

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Speaker 1: understanding what's happening? Are you just hysterical?

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Speaker 2: How was that hysterical? I kept it together. Actually, I

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Speaker 2: was like, which is crazy? My cousin she had no

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Speaker 2: gas in her car. She was like, I got to

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Speaker 2: go to a gas station. I was like, there's not time.

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Speaker 2: I said, take my truck. Well, she didn't know how

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Speaker 2: to drive a stick shift, and I was like, well,

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Speaker 2: I'll teach you. Like I was like, whatever we got

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Speaker 2: to do to get to the hospital right now. And

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Speaker 2: I don't know why we didn't think of calling nine

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Speaker 2: one one right, but I just thought it would be faster.

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Speaker 1: She was already there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, like, let's get in a car and go and

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Speaker 2: if we break down, we'll figure it out. But on

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Speaker 2: the way to the hospital, my lungs were collapsing, so

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Speaker 2: I had to like talk myself through every breath I took,

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Speaker 2: like I was like, breathe, breathe, breathe, because my I

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Speaker 2: mean I was, I was dying. I'm lucky that I survived.

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Speaker 1: Just that, you know, next hour, so what's happening here?

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Speaker 2: So I was going into septic shock because I contracted

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Speaker 2: me Ninja kackle meningitis, which is a bacteria, and it

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Speaker 2: spread like the flu or the cold. So just you know,

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Speaker 2: maybe somebody sneezed on me and the elevator at work,

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Speaker 2: and that's how I got it because it's airborne in

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Speaker 2: the sense that you know, if somebody sneezes or coughs,

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Speaker 2: then that bacteria can get on your nose and mouth

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Speaker 2: and that's how it gets into your body. But the

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Speaker 2: thing is that this bacteria, it's called Niceria namendetitis, I

220
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Speaker 2: think it's what it's called, But that bacteria is actually

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Speaker 2: very common. One in four people are carriers of it.

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Speaker 2: They're just not sick from it because our bodies are

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Speaker 2: immune to it and our bodies know to fight it off.

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Speaker 2: It's almost like staff in the sense that like everybody

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Speaker 2: has staff on them, but not everybody gets sick, you know,

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Speaker 2: from the staph infection. So it's similar to that where

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Speaker 2: it's really rare to get sick from it, but when

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Speaker 2: you do, it's deadly. And so yeah, it's something like

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Speaker 2: eighty five percent deadly in the first twenty four hours

230
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Speaker 2: of your first flu like symptom. And the hardest part

231
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Speaker 2: with it too is you think you have the flu.

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Speaker 2: So there was nothing telling me that I had anything

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Speaker 2: else but the flu at that point until suddenly I

234
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Speaker 2: was in septic shock and going into cardiac arrest and everything,

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Speaker 2: and so when I entered the hospital, they put me

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Speaker 2: on life support right away. They had no idea what

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Speaker 2: they had what I had. They thought I had toxic

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Speaker 2: shock syndrome at first, so you know, they did blood

239
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Speaker 2: cultures and they had to put all these ivs in me,

240
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Speaker 2: and they ended up filling me up with oh my gosh,

241
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Speaker 2: fifty pounds of water geese. Yeah. So I went in

242
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Speaker 2: at one hundred and twenty pounds and by the time

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Speaker 2: my parents saw me, I was one hundred and seventy

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Speaker 2: five pounds. So completely looked totally different because I had

245
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Speaker 2: no pressure in my veins, so they had to just

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Speaker 2: keep filling me with water so they could get medication

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Speaker 2: in me and stuff, and they didn't think I was

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Speaker 2: going to make it through the night. They told my

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Speaker 2: family they needed to say goodbye. So my family brought

250
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Speaker 2: in like every friend I had, and everybody was surrounding

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Speaker 2: me saying goodbye, and I remember thinking it was very

252
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Speaker 2: It was very much show an outer body experience for

253
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Speaker 2: me because I remember I was gasping for air and

254
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Speaker 2: I knew I was dying, yet at the same time,

255
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Speaker 2: there was a part of me. It's almost like a

256
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Speaker 2: part of me detached from my body, because there's a

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Speaker 2: part of me that was kind of thinking, like, all

258
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Speaker 2: these people think I'm dying, but like there's something comical

259
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Speaker 2: about it, which is so weird in my mind. I

260
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Speaker 2: was like, all right, guys, like, don't you think this

261
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Speaker 2: is a little extreme. Everybody's saying they're goodbyes at the

262
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Speaker 2: same time I'm gasping for air or trying to breathe.

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Speaker 2: So it was just this interesting like outer body, you know,

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Speaker 2: surreal experience.

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Speaker 1: And when does it turn the corner? When are you

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Speaker 1: not dying anymore?

267
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Speaker 2: Took a couple of weeks, so I that next week

268
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Speaker 2: or two was the worst.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

270
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Speaker 2: I was put on life support, put into an induced coma.

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Speaker 2: My parents had no idea if I'd wake up again.

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Speaker 2: At that point, my spleen burst. I was rushed into

273
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Speaker 2: this emergency surgery and the doctors didn't think I was

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Speaker 2: going to survive the surgery at all. This my spleen

275
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Speaker 2: bursts inside of me, and they had like five minutes

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Speaker 2: to get it out or something crazy and so, and

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Speaker 2: I had near death experience when that happened. And then

278
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Speaker 2: just all my organs were hemorrhaging except for my heart

279
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Speaker 2: and my brain, and which is amazing to me, like

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Speaker 2: the most the two most important organs were okay, and so, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it was very touch and go for about two weeks there.

282
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Speaker 2: But then as I started to wake up from this coma,

283
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Speaker 2: that's when I realized that my hands and my feet

284
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Speaker 2: were in big trouble because of the septic shock that

285
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Speaker 2: I went into. I lost circulation to my hands and

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Speaker 2: my feet, so my fingers were black, the soles of

287
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Speaker 2: my feet were black, my feet were purple, my toes

288
00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:43,200
Speaker 2: were black. And basically, when you're in septic shock, your

289
00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:46,040
Speaker 2: body pulls blood from your extremities to save your organs.

290
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Speaker 2: So that's what was happening, and that's why I saw

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Speaker 2: That's why I couldn't feel my feet, you know. And

292
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Speaker 2: I woke up that one day. I couldn't feel my feet,

293
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Speaker 2: I couldn't fel my hands because I was starting to

294
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Speaker 2: go into septic shock before I got to the hospital.

295
00:14:56,880 --> 00:14:59,000
Speaker 2: And then it just they they were doing everything they

296
00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,960
Speaker 2: could to save my hands, my feet, and so I

297
00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:07,000
Speaker 2: was very aware that that there's the possibility that I

298
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:08,880
Speaker 2: was going to lose my legs, and we thought I

299
00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:12,280
Speaker 2: was losing my hands as well. But I got very

300
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Speaker 2: lucky that my hands turned around. It's yeah, it's it's

301
00:15:18,520 --> 00:15:22,200
Speaker 2: amazing because the doctor said that most likely my fingers

302
00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:24,200
Speaker 2: were just going to fall off because they're that bad.

303
00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:28,280
Speaker 2: They were just black, and so to have my hands

304
00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:32,440
Speaker 2: start to recover was amazing. But my feet continue to

305
00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:36,120
Speaker 2: get worse, and so I ended up losing both my

306
00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:39,600
Speaker 2: legs below the knees and having my legs amputated, well

307
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Speaker 2: kind of just above the ankles amputated.

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Speaker 1: It's really beautiful that you can be going through that

309
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Speaker 1: experience and still have the frame of mind to say

310
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Speaker 1: that I'm so thankful I have my hands.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think that's what you know, got me

312
00:15:56,200 --> 00:16:00,480
Speaker 2: through some of my toughest days. There was gratitude because

313
00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:02,920
Speaker 2: it could have been so much worse, and I knew

314
00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:06,280
Speaker 2: it could be worse, like not only was I possibly

315
00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:09,120
Speaker 2: loosing my hands, but also my nose was really bad.

316
00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:12,000
Speaker 2: Like they had a plastic surgeon come in and show

317
00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:13,760
Speaker 2: me a mirror and say, like, we're going to have

318
00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:16,920
Speaker 2: to reconstruct your nose because it was just black and

319
00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:18,920
Speaker 2: so thinking that I was going to lose, you know,

320
00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:21,800
Speaker 2: part of my face and my hands and my feet.

321
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Speaker 2: By the time I lost my feet, honestly, I thought,

322
00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:27,440
Speaker 2: oh my god, that was a close one, Like I

323
00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:30,400
Speaker 2: only lost my feet, Like, how lucky am I. So

324
00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:32,400
Speaker 2: it's all about perspective.

325
00:16:32,240 --> 00:16:36,200
Speaker 1: Right, What was it like for you when you got

326
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,000
Speaker 1: your first set of prosthetics?

327
00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:43,120
Speaker 2: Uh? So scary. That's when it got real. So I

328
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:45,640
Speaker 2: would say when I was in the hospital, I was

329
00:16:46,400 --> 00:16:50,440
Speaker 2: really positive. I stayed really strong, never cried, never shedd

330
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Speaker 2: a tear.

331
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Speaker 1: That's unbelievable. I'm like crying almost sitting there.

332
00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:56,920
Speaker 2: And I think part of that was I would have

333
00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,400
Speaker 2: never known that I was that strong. But I think

334
00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:03,040
Speaker 2: part of it I was on survival mode. So you

335
00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:05,600
Speaker 2: set your emotions aside and you're doing whatever you got

336
00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:07,959
Speaker 2: to do to just get through the next day. And

337
00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:12,000
Speaker 2: also everybody around me was crying. Everybody around me was heartbroken.

338
00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,480
Speaker 2: And you know, my parents went through so much and

339
00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:18,199
Speaker 2: seeing their daughter lose her legs, and they had no

340
00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:19,840
Speaker 2: idea what my life was going to be like. And

341
00:17:20,320 --> 00:17:22,560
Speaker 2: I wanted to let them know that everything was going

342
00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:24,840
Speaker 2: to be okay, Like I felt like I kind of

343
00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:27,639
Speaker 2: needed to be strong for everybody else too, So I

344
00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:30,160
Speaker 2: think that was part of it, was just but also

345
00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:32,200
Speaker 2: being grateful once again, I thought, oh my god, I

346
00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:34,959
Speaker 2: almost died. I'm so grateful. Okay, I can handle this.

347
00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:38,399
Speaker 2: And at one point I remember thinking, well, this happened

348
00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:40,359
Speaker 2: to the right person because I know I can handle it,

349
00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:43,560
Speaker 2: which is crazy. I didn't even know what I was

350
00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:44,080
Speaker 2: dealing with.

351
00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:46,360
Speaker 1: What's that saying. It's like God only gives the tough

352
00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:48,280
Speaker 1: stuff to the people he knows that can handle it.

353
00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:54,560
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I mean that's that's that's how I felt.

354
00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:59,800
Speaker 2: Not that it was easy, not that I wasn't completely scared,

355
00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:02,560
Speaker 2: but I think I had I was forced to be

356
00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:04,639
Speaker 2: in the moment, and when you're in the moment, you

357
00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:08,080
Speaker 2: can't you don't have anxiety about the future. You're just

358
00:18:08,119 --> 00:18:11,119
Speaker 2: trying to get through a moment to moment. So that

359
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:13,600
Speaker 2: helped me definitely emotionally.

360
00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:16,000
Speaker 1: So the doctors come in with some legs.

361
00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:19,119
Speaker 2: Well, so I did see some prosthetic legs when I

362
00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:21,480
Speaker 2: was in the hospital. Right before they amputated my legs,

363
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:25,560
Speaker 2: a prostatist came in to introduce himself, and he was

364
00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:28,040
Speaker 2: this young surfer guy. He had lost his leg above

365
00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:31,200
Speaker 2: the knee and a motorcycle accident. So it was nice

366
00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:34,000
Speaker 2: they sent me this like young active guy so that

367
00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:37,760
Speaker 2: I could see that life goes on. And he brought

368
00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:40,160
Speaker 2: all these different legs and was trying to show me what,

369
00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:44,240
Speaker 2: you know, prosthetics look like. And yeah, I mean I

370
00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:46,840
Speaker 2: so I had seen them, and then basically I didn't

371
00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:49,680
Speaker 2: get fit for my legs until after I left the hospital.

372
00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:51,760
Speaker 2: So I was in the hospital for about two and

373
00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:55,800
Speaker 2: a half months and then I i'd stay. Within the

374
00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:59,280
Speaker 2: next like week or two, I was getting fit for

375
00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:03,000
Speaker 2: my prosthetics and then I stood up in my legs

376
00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:03,320
Speaker 2: for the.

377
00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:05,840
Speaker 1: First time and talk to me about that.

378
00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:09,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're so well. First of all, when he walked

379
00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:12,440
Speaker 2: them in the room, I was devastated because I didn't

380
00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:14,480
Speaker 2: know what I was expecting. I thought, Okay, I'm going

381
00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,240
Speaker 2: to get my legs and go like thanks. So yeah,

382
00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:19,520
Speaker 2: and he walked in with these legs that were just

383
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:24,119
Speaker 2: you know, pipes bolted together and these really bulky sockets,

384
00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,480
Speaker 2: which is like the part that you that's customized around

385
00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:31,000
Speaker 2: your limb. Yeah, and I just thought, there's no way

386
00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:33,159
Speaker 2: those could be my legs. Like, as he was walking

387
00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:34,720
Speaker 2: towards me, I'm like, you gotta be kidding me, like

388
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:37,439
Speaker 2: these rubber feet, and the feet were like this yellow

389
00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:40,040
Speaker 2: rubber foot and I just thought, oh my god, like

390
00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,359
Speaker 2: these have to be temporary. There's no way that my

391
00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:43,879
Speaker 2: legs are going to look like that the rest of

392
00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:47,399
Speaker 2: my life. But so that was a lot to wrap

393
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:49,240
Speaker 2: my head around. And then putting them on for the

394
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:54,520
Speaker 2: first time, they were so painful and so like confining.

395
00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:58,880
Speaker 2: I felt claustrophobic because you know your your calves and

396
00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:01,760
Speaker 2: like basically I have ten inches below the knee and

397
00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:05,000
Speaker 2: so that's where like they create this socket that you

398
00:20:05,040 --> 00:20:08,640
Speaker 2: step into and lock in, and but like your calves

399
00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:11,399
Speaker 2: and stuff aren't used to being confined like that in

400
00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:14,639
Speaker 2: carbon fiber, and I just thought, oh my god, this

401
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:16,760
Speaker 2: is going to be so hot. And not only that,

402
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:18,879
Speaker 2: so you kind of lock into the legs and then

403
00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:22,439
Speaker 2: you have to pull this like heavy sleeve over your knees,

404
00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:24,760
Speaker 2: and then if your legs don't fit right, you have

405
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,600
Speaker 2: to put these wool socks on. And I'm living in

406
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:29,800
Speaker 2: Las Vegas. I'm like, oh my god, this is going

407
00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:34,120
Speaker 2: to be the hottest. You know thing ever, And Yeah,

408
00:20:34,119 --> 00:20:36,200
Speaker 2: when I stood up, I just thought, there's no way

409
00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:39,879
Speaker 2: I'm going to be able to travel and snowboard and

410
00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:41,359
Speaker 2: do all the things that I wanted to do.

411
00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:44,959
Speaker 1: Talk to me a little bit about snowboarding, because I

412
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,560
Speaker 1: feel like that must have been something that was kind

413
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:49,359
Speaker 1: of on your mind from the second they were like,

414
00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:51,679
Speaker 1: we aren't going to be able to keep your legs.

415
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:56,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was on my mind absolutely from that moment on.

416
00:20:56,240 --> 00:20:58,920
Speaker 2: For sure. When I go back into my medical records,

417
00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:03,680
Speaker 2: pretty much every day I'm asking the doctors about snowboarding, Right,

418
00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:05,760
Speaker 2: so when can I snowboard again? Have you seen some

419
00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:07,600
Speaker 2: of the two prosthetic legs snowboards? So what do you

420
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:09,119
Speaker 2: think about snowboarding.

421
00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:11,320
Speaker 1: And what was the climate of the sport at that time?

422
00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:13,119
Speaker 1: Was anyone with prosthetic snowboarding?

423
00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:15,280
Speaker 2: No? And actually it was very new. It was very

424
00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:18,960
Speaker 2: new because there wasn't even a big female competitive space.

425
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,840
Speaker 2: There were some I looked up to, some amazing women

426
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:24,960
Speaker 2: like Barrett Christie was like my idol and snowboarding, but

427
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,960
Speaker 2: it was very very small just for women in the

428
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:31,080
Speaker 2: first place, let alone for someone with a disability. So I,

429
00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:33,480
Speaker 2: you know, I had never even seen anybody with a

430
00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:37,239
Speaker 2: prosthetic leg, let alone snowboarding with a prosthetic leg. So

431
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:40,919
Speaker 2: I really had to kind of figure it out myself.

432
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:44,280
Speaker 2: But I think the challenge of that of wanting to

433
00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:47,679
Speaker 2: snowboard again and trying to find a way is what

434
00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:51,960
Speaker 2: it kept me moving forward. And when I was in

435
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 2: the hospital, actually when they when they wheeled me into

436
00:21:54,320 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 2: the surgical room to amputate my legs, I was so scared,

437
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:01,119
Speaker 2: had no idea what my life was going to be like,

438
00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:04,800
Speaker 2: could not wrap my head around what I was going

439
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:09,040
Speaker 2: to be dealing with. But I gave myself three goals,

440
00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:12,200
Speaker 2: and one of them was that I had never missed

441
00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:14,400
Speaker 2: a season of snowboarding, so I wasn't going to miss

442
00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:18,080
Speaker 2: that season. So I just I knew that I would

443
00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:20,920
Speaker 2: snowboard that year and try to figure it out. And

444
00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:24,399
Speaker 2: then another goal was that when I figured all this out,

445
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:27,600
Speaker 2: I wanted to help other people. And the other one

446
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:30,800
Speaker 2: was that I wasn't going to feel sorry for myself,

447
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,760
Speaker 2: that no matter how things go, how bad things get,

448
00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:35,600
Speaker 2: that I wasn't a victim and I wasn't going to

449
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:39,600
Speaker 2: feel sorry for myself. And so setting those goals really

450
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:41,639
Speaker 2: helped me that way. When I woke up and my

451
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,439
Speaker 2: legs were gone. You know, I still had these goals

452
00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:47,280
Speaker 2: that I had set to move forward, and so snowboarding

453
00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:50,000
Speaker 2: was one of them, and I started doing a ton

454
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:54,080
Speaker 2: of research when I got home from the hospital. The

455
00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:56,920
Speaker 2: Internet was brand new at that time, kind of because

456
00:22:56,920 --> 00:23:01,800
Speaker 2: we're talking like maybe eighteen years ago, and so I started,

457
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:03,960
Speaker 2: you know, just kind of googling, which I don't even

458
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:06,360
Speaker 2: know if it was Google at that time, but typing

459
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:11,600
Speaker 2: in like amputee snowboarder, snowboarder with prosthetic legs, disabled snowboarder,

460
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:13,360
Speaker 2: like trying to figure out what kind of feet were

461
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 2: out there, because I knew I needed a special type

462
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:17,800
Speaker 2: of foot because the feet that I was walking and

463
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,639
Speaker 2: had zero movement at all. And with snowboarding you actually

464
00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:24,639
Speaker 2: use your ankles and all the little bones and balancing,

465
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:27,919
Speaker 2: you know, parts of your feet so much. And I

466
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:32,760
Speaker 2: couldn't find anything. I ended up trying to snowboard and

467
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:36,080
Speaker 2: just the feet that I had, and it was disastrous,

468
00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,480
Speaker 2: Like my ankles went to bend and I fell, and

469
00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:41,679
Speaker 2: at one point my legs came off, and there's just

470
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:45,679
Speaker 2: all these hurdles you know that you have to just

471
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:49,160
Speaker 2: try it to figure out what it's going to be like, and.

472
00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:53,400
Speaker 1: Were you just putting your prosthetic legs into traditional boots

473
00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:54,080
Speaker 1: and bindings.

474
00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:56,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I just put my normal boots on my

475
00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:01,119
Speaker 2: normal board. My normal setup at that point wouldn't have

476
00:24:01,119 --> 00:24:03,520
Speaker 2: had any idea of how to customize anything because I

477
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,240
Speaker 2: hadn't even tried it yet. So I really just needed

478
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:10,760
Speaker 2: to start somewhere. And that's actually a good message that

479
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:13,040
Speaker 2: I try to get across at some points as well.

480
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:15,000
Speaker 2: It's just like, you got to start somewhere, right, You

481
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:18,040
Speaker 2: have to like just begin, even if everything's wrong, then

482
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:20,120
Speaker 2: you can figure out what to do to make it right.

483
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,359
Speaker 2: So yeah, so I just went up with my sister

484
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,640
Speaker 2: and a friend, and I remember walking in my snowboard

485
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 2: boots and it felt so weird and just every bit

486
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:32,080
Speaker 2: of it felt so foreign. And I think when I

487
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,680
Speaker 2: got on the chair lift and going up to snowboard

488
00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 2: for the very first time is when fear set in

489
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 2: for the first time of what if I can't do this?

490
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:42,960
Speaker 2: Like what if I am going to find out in

491
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,480
Speaker 2: the next five minutes that this is basically impossible? And

492
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 2: that's pretty much what happened, because you know, it was

493
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:54,439
Speaker 2: just kind of disastrous. My ankles didn't bend, my legs

494
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:59,560
Speaker 2: didn't stay on. It was painful, but it also gave

495
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:01,560
Speaker 2: me something to work with where I thought, Okay, if

496
00:25:01,640 --> 00:25:03,760
Speaker 2: I if I can figure out a way to keep

497
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:06,399
Speaker 2: these legs attached, if I can figure out the right

498
00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:09,199
Speaker 2: ankles or feet that move in the way that I

499
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:11,080
Speaker 2: need to, then I can do this again.

500
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:15,880
Speaker 1: And were you seeking out specialists in this and prosthetics

501
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:17,199
Speaker 1: to help you accomplish this?

502
00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:22,440
Speaker 2: So when I went home from snowboarding that day, that's

503
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:27,080
Speaker 2: I started doing research and calling every adaptive ski school

504
00:25:27,160 --> 00:25:29,720
Speaker 2: asking them if they've ever worked with an ampute snowboarder,

505
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 2: which at that time they said no, and they said

506
00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 2: most of the time, if you're a double leg amputee,

507
00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:37,080
Speaker 2: we put you in a monoski. And I thought, well,

508
00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:39,879
Speaker 2: I'm not a skier and I want to use my legs.

509
00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:41,760
Speaker 2: I don't want to take my legs off and sit

510
00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,440
Speaker 2: in a monoski like I want a snowboard. And so

511
00:25:44,640 --> 00:25:47,919
Speaker 2: that was the answer that I got constantly was like, no,

512
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,760
Speaker 2: we've never We've never worked with an ampute snowboarder before.

513
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,760
Speaker 2: And so then I started calling leg manufacturers and asking them,

514
00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 2: and you know, just whatever I could do. And my

515
00:25:57,880 --> 00:26:01,600
Speaker 2: kind of I guess breakthrough was my brother in law

516
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:05,520
Speaker 2: had seen this guy on There used to be this

517
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 2: kind of action sport TV show or a TV channel

518
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:11,679
Speaker 2: called Blue Torch. Do you remember Blue Torch was like

519
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:16,040
Speaker 2: all action sports space. Well, my brother in law was

520
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,760
Speaker 2: watching that and saw this guy snowboarding and then at

521
00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 2: the bottom of the run he pulled his pant leg

522
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:25,080
Speaker 2: up and he had a prosthetic leg, and so he

523
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:29,359
Speaker 2: videotaped this and sent it to me and I watched it,

524
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:31,080
Speaker 2: and as soon as I got finished watching it, I

525
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:34,240
Speaker 2: googled Blue Torch TV and there was a phone number

526
00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:36,359
Speaker 2: and I called and the first guy who answered, I

527
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:38,399
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, you guys just aired somebody who has

528
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:41,360
Speaker 2: a prosthetic leg and snowboarded. Do you know what his

529
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:42,960
Speaker 2: name is or do you know what kind of leg

530
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,440
Speaker 2: he uses? And the guy who answered, he said, oh,

531
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:47,679
Speaker 2: that's Thin Maller, that's my best friend. So here's his

532
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:51,240
Speaker 2: phone number, and so I called him. Like so within

533
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 2: minutes of seeing him, I called him and I was like, Hi,

534
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:57,000
Speaker 2: my name Sammy Perdy, and I had two prosthetic legs

535
00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:59,359
Speaker 2: and I saw you snowboard, and all I want to

536
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:01,440
Speaker 2: know is what kind of legs you used? And he

537
00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:04,919
Speaker 2: ended up hooking me up with this company who I

538
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,159
Speaker 2: ended up sending a letter to as well, like he

539
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:09,960
Speaker 2: kind of introduced me to the company, and then I

540
00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:13,560
Speaker 2: sent this letter, and in this letter, I said, I

541
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:17,720
Speaker 2: don't know if a double leg amputee can snowboard, but

542
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:20,240
Speaker 2: if they can, I'm going to be the one to

543
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,960
Speaker 2: figure it out. So if you give me your feet,

544
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:25,520
Speaker 2: then I can test this out. And feet are expensive.

545
00:27:25,760 --> 00:27:28,640
Speaker 2: Prosthetic legs are expensive. My legs set up is thirty

546
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:32,359
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. So to get a pair of legs just

547
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:35,280
Speaker 2: kind of sent to you is, you know, a really

548
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 2: big deal. And so those were the first feet that

549
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 2: I snowboarded, and they weren't really good. They didn't really

550
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:47,560
Speaker 2: work that well for me. I can see why they

551
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:50,159
Speaker 2: work for a single leg amputee like Fain Maller, but

552
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,560
Speaker 2: for a double it was still very challenging for me

553
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,920
Speaker 2: to ride in those feet because they had this kind

554
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,480
Speaker 2: of spring and every time I try to get onto

555
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:02,399
Speaker 2: my toe, you would spring me back. And so I

556
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:04,320
Speaker 2: knew at that point I needed my to edge to

557
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,600
Speaker 2: collapse like and stay there and not spring me back.

558
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 2: And so then but what his feet allowed me to

559
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 2: do is meet another well, meet another snowboarder who had

560
00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:17,159
Speaker 2: a prosthetic leg, and then go up and play around

561
00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:18,959
Speaker 2: a little bit and do a little bit better than

562
00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:21,919
Speaker 2: I did before. So this baby steps And then I

563
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:25,080
Speaker 2: ended up actually making my own pair of feet to

564
00:28:25,119 --> 00:28:28,159
Speaker 2: snowboard in at that point, because I knew what I needed,

565
00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:32,360
Speaker 2: and so I went to my prosthetic shop and basically

566
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:34,960
Speaker 2: told them this is you know, this is the flexion

567
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:36,960
Speaker 2: that I need, and this is how it has to feel.

568
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 2: And so we ended up taking different parts and pieces

569
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 2: from other legs and just getting really creative, Like we

570
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:47,400
Speaker 2: made these Frankenstein feet because there is duct tape, pink

571
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,360
Speaker 2: duct tape holding stuff together. And I put these wood

572
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:53,120
Speaker 2: wedges under the heels, which allowed me to get onto

573
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:55,719
Speaker 2: my toes a little bit better. We took this ankle

574
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:58,240
Speaker 2: from this other company and turned it backwards and it

575
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:00,240
Speaker 2: allowed my ankle to collapse in the way I need

576
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 2: it to. And so those feet are really what changed

577
00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:05,600
Speaker 2: the game for me.

578
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,920
Speaker 1: I feel like I would have those feet like in

579
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:10,760
Speaker 1: a case they're.

580
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:12,080
Speaker 2: They're actually in the Smithsonian.

581
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no big deal. Yeah, the Smithsonian.

582
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:17,959
Speaker 2: I know, it's kind of crazy. I'm like, I'll never

583
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 2: get them back, but I've got pictures of them and

584
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:20,920
Speaker 2: you can visit them.

585
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:24,680
Speaker 1: That's outstanding. That's outstanding. Okay, So you get some feet

586
00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 1: that do everything you need them to do right for

587
00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:32,880
Speaker 1: the most part. Right fast forward, and you're snowboarding for

588
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:37,560
Speaker 1: a while again, and you are in a position where

589
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 1: you understand that the Olympics are kind of in your reach.

590
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 1: Talk to me about how that all kind of unfolded.

591
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's interesting that I didn't think about ever,

592
00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 2: you know, being an Olympian until after I lost my legs.

593
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 2: But also I think too, Snowboarding wasn't a part of

594
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:58,040
Speaker 2: the Olympic Games when I was younger, so it wasn't

595
00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 2: something that I really aspired for. And then but I

596
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,320
Speaker 2: saw a niche that needed to be filled. I saw

597
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 2: that snowboarding wasn't in the Paralympic Games, and I also

598
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,120
Speaker 2: saw that there weren't many people snowboarding with prosthetic legs,

599
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,160
Speaker 2: and so I would go to different events to try

600
00:30:17,160 --> 00:30:20,400
Speaker 2: to meet people different like disabled ski events, and everybody

601
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 2: would be skiing, of course, and I'd be the only snowboarder,

602
00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:26,040
Speaker 2: and I wanted to be able to, I guess, give

603
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,320
Speaker 2: the option and let people know you can snowboard on

604
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 2: two prosthetic legs or a prosthetic leg if you want to.

605
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:34,680
Speaker 2: And so I ended up meeting my husband while I

606
00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 2: was on a snowboard trip in cress Abute, Colorado, and

607
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:43,520
Speaker 2: he had this background in philanthropy and his mom actually

608
00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 2: helped us start an organization called Adaptive Action Sports, And

609
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 2: the whole idea was to, you know, we figured out

610
00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 2: how to get me involved in the sports that I loved,

611
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:54,000
Speaker 2: and figured out the types of equipment, and we wanted

612
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 2: to help other people do the same. So we were

613
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 2: a big part of helping in this sport row in

614
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 2: the first place, like kind of creating this adaptive snowboard

615
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:06,560
Speaker 2: community because there were people out there around the world

616
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:08,920
Speaker 2: who were snowboarding with a prosthetic leg or two, we

617
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:11,960
Speaker 2: just weren't connected. So we kind of started it as

618
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 2: this place. The organization we started as this place where

619
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,800
Speaker 2: people could connect and learn about different feet and different

620
00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 2: tips and tricks, and we would create events to pull

621
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 2: all the adaptive snowboarders together and we started getting snowboarding

622
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 2: into different competitions. We got adaptive snowboarding into the United

623
00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 2: States of America Snowboard Associations. Yeah, like competition, I guess

624
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 2: you can say they work with all able bodied athletes.

625
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 2: But we created an adaptive snowboard division to that and

626
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:48,880
Speaker 2: the idea was just to help grow this community of

627
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:53,240
Speaker 2: adaptive snowboarders. And then my husband was able to get

628
00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 2: snowboard adaptive snowboarding into the ESPN Winter X Games and

629
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 2: we ran that, I believe for three years and that

630
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:03,479
Speaker 2: was a huge platform for us because we were riding

631
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:06,959
Speaker 2: on you know, the biggest snowboard course in the world

632
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,440
Speaker 2: with all the pros and able to show what we

633
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 2: were capable of and what we were able to do.

634
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 2: And then we were part of pushing to get snowboarding

635
00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:20,000
Speaker 2: into the Paralympic Games. And so that the idea of

636
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 2: getting snowboarding adaptive snowboarding into the Olympics and Paralympics was

637
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 2: an ongoing process for quite a few years. Like that

638
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:31,040
Speaker 2: was a goal to get snowboarding into the Paralympic Games

639
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:34,560
Speaker 2: at some point, and in twenty eleven we found out

640
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 2: that we had done that. What was that, Like it

641
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 2: was out of the blue to be honest, because we

642
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 2: were turned down so many times. And at one point

643
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:49,360
Speaker 2: we were sure that snowboarding was going to be in

644
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:52,000
Speaker 2: the Paralympics because there were World Cups that were happening

645
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:54,440
Speaker 2: at this point all over the world. And at that

646
00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:57,720
Speaker 2: point too, I was showing up with other adaptive snowboarders.

647
00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:00,240
Speaker 2: We didn't have sponsors. We were just you know, lying

648
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 2: to New Zealand to compete in a World Cup and

649
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:04,240
Speaker 2: flying to France to compete in a World Cup, just

650
00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 2: doing this all out of our own pockets, without any

651
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 2: real support or help. But there was a lot of us.

652
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,480
Speaker 2: And you were supposed to have to get snowboarding or

653
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,360
Speaker 2: any sport into the Olympic Games, you need, I believe,

654
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:20,240
Speaker 2: eight countries involved. They need to have athletes from eight countries,

655
00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:23,480
Speaker 2: and we had that. So we were convinced that we

656
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:26,320
Speaker 2: were going to get snowboarding into the Games. And the

657
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:30,400
Speaker 2: next games were in Russia, and so even this kind

658
00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 2: of you know, Russian organizer came out and we were

659
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:36,720
Speaker 2: just waiting for him to tell us that we got

660
00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 2: it into the Games. And the next morning a press

661
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:42,720
Speaker 2: release went out that snowboarding wouldn't be in the Paralympic games,

662
00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 2: and so we all had our you know, our hopes

663
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 2: up for a bit there and then I'm not sure

664
00:33:48,160 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 2: what happened, because about eight months later, all of a sudden,

665
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:53,880
Speaker 2: we got another press release that said snowboarding was in

666
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:57,480
Speaker 2: the twenty fourteen Paralympic Games. So that was crazy, that

667
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 2: was exciting. Of course, everybody, all that adapted snow orders

668
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 2: were all on the phone with each other like, oh

669
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 2: my god, this is real, like this is like now

670
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:07,720
Speaker 2: our sport is going to be official. And so it

671
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:11,560
Speaker 2: only gave us eighteen months to prepare for the games.

672
00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:15,919
Speaker 2: And at that point I was I was snowboarding competitively,

673
00:34:16,080 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 2: but on a pretty low level, Like I didn't. I

674
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:22,360
Speaker 2: didn't My feet were great, but not good enough to

675
00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:27,120
Speaker 2: really grow as an athlete. I needed to have different equipment,

676
00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:28,960
Speaker 2: and I kind of struggled with the feed I had

677
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 2: made to do what I want to do. And so outside, yeah,

678
00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, I felt like I've got to

679
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 2: be an Olympic athlete in eighteen months and ended up

680
00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:42,719
Speaker 2: just you know, focusing all my energy that direction and

681
00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:47,880
Speaker 2: literally started training every day and built like twenty pounds

682
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:52,240
Speaker 2: of muscle and got these new feet and just started

683
00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 2: competing everywhere I could, and made it to the Games

684
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 2: and came home with a bronze medal.

685
00:34:57,640 --> 00:35:00,080
Speaker 1: And he said, it's so casually. It's like I and

686
00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:02,840
Speaker 1: I added twenty pounds of muscles. Well, it just happened.

687
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:05,480
Speaker 1: I went to kmart, I think, yeah, what do you

688
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:07,520
Speaker 1: have to do beside snowboarding to kind of make those

689
00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:08,240
Speaker 1: kind of games.

690
00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:11,400
Speaker 2: So I did a lot of weightlifting because I also

691
00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 2: I'm naturally pretty thin, and having two prosthetic legs, you

692
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:18,880
Speaker 2: burn up to sixty percent more calories than the average person.

693
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:21,880
Speaker 1: Wow, because you're constantly lifting that extra weight.

694
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:25,799
Speaker 2: Working yeah, and using other muscles to compensate. So I

695
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:28,320
Speaker 2: was really thin. I mean I was like one hundred

696
00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 2: and five pounds or something. And speed as your friend,

697
00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:34,839
Speaker 2: and the more weight you have then the faster you

698
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:37,319
Speaker 2: go on a snowboard. And so I wanted to just

699
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:39,320
Speaker 2: be the strongest that I could be, And all of

700
00:35:39,320 --> 00:35:41,920
Speaker 2: a sudden, sponsors started coming out of nowhere. I got

701
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:46,879
Speaker 2: sponsored by Coca Cola and Gosh, got sponsored by Kellogg's

702
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 2: and some of the biggest Olympic sponsors chose me to sponsor,

703
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,239
Speaker 2: which was amazing, And all of a sudden, I just realized, well,

704
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 2: I have all the support in the world to be

705
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,200
Speaker 2: the best that I can be, and I'm going to

706
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 2: use this time to be the best that i can be.

707
00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:04,640
Speaker 2: And so I also though at that time, put a

708
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,839
Speaker 2: lot of pressure on myself because I had been a

709
00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:12,960
Speaker 2: face to the sport and now this is our opportunity

710
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:16,399
Speaker 2: to share it with the world, and I didn't want

711
00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:20,400
Speaker 2: to let anybody down. And so there was just a

712
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:23,400
Speaker 2: lot of pressure, Yeah, a lot of pressure to represent

713
00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:28,960
Speaker 2: and also you want the Olympic and Paralympic committee to know,

714
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:30,840
Speaker 2: like this was a good idea of getting the adaptive

715
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:33,280
Speaker 2: snowboarding in here, Like we know what we're doing, we're pros.

716
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:35,480
Speaker 1: But I think it's really beautiful that you're saying, like

717
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:38,040
Speaker 1: they chose me, like out of everyone they could have sponsored,

718
00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:39,919
Speaker 1: like they chose me. Well, like, take a step back

719
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,879
Speaker 1: and understand that you've been putting in the work. Yeah,

720
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:45,240
Speaker 1: you know, like it didn't just happen because.

721
00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:47,240
Speaker 2: Right out of the blue, exactly right.

722
00:36:47,560 --> 00:36:50,520
Speaker 1: So you get on the podium, which must have been outrageous,

723
00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:53,320
Speaker 1: and then a few years later you do it again.

724
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:59,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so the first time was it's just

725
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:04,720
Speaker 2: really emotional because all these years went into learning to walk,

726
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:07,760
Speaker 2: learning to snowboard, trying to figure my legs out, growing

727
00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:11,440
Speaker 2: the community, getting it into the games, and all of

728
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:13,840
Speaker 2: those emotions kind of came to me as I was

729
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:18,160
Speaker 2: in the stargates for my last run, like, yeah, it

730
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,000
Speaker 2: makes me want to cry, yeah, because it was just

731
00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 2: like I felt so grateful and like, oh my gosh,

732
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:27,759
Speaker 2: if something doesn't exist, you can create it, you can

733
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 2: build it, you can make it happen. So I was

734
00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:34,360
Speaker 2: just really proud of myself and proud of all the

735
00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:38,759
Speaker 2: other athletes involved, and proud of what we built. And

736
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:42,480
Speaker 2: to try to keep those emotions together when you're competing

737
00:37:43,120 --> 00:37:45,799
Speaker 2: is really hard because your emotions can kind of break

738
00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:50,080
Speaker 2: you down, and I needed to use them to make

739
00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:51,960
Speaker 2: me the strongest I've ever been, you know.

740
00:37:52,239 --> 00:37:54,160
Speaker 1: And it's so beautiful that you have that kind of

741
00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:56,719
Speaker 1: inner dialogue with yourself because I think for a lot

742
00:37:56,760 --> 00:38:00,840
Speaker 1: of people during really tough or stressful times, it's easy

743
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:02,000
Speaker 1: to feel overwhelmed.

744
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh absolutely, But I think too when I go

745
00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:11,800
Speaker 2: back to my hospital days, I learned to compartmentalize because

746
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,440
Speaker 2: I had so much going on. I had lost my legs,

747
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:16,600
Speaker 2: lost my kidneys, lost the hearing in my left ear.

748
00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:17,880
Speaker 1: That's something we didn't touch on that.

749
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:19,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was it two years after you lost your

750
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:24,000
Speaker 2: legs that I had a kidney transfer. Yeah yeah, i'd

751
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,560
Speaker 2: say or a year and a half after, and I

752
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:30,560
Speaker 2: lost my kidneys through the whole meningitis process, because yeah,

753
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:33,000
Speaker 2: my kidneys were hit really hard. And then my dad

754
00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:35,560
Speaker 2: gave me one of his kidneys about a year and

755
00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:37,680
Speaker 2: a half after my twenty first birthday.

756
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:40,400
Speaker 1: That's insane. Also that he was a match for you.

757
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were almost twins as far as matches go,

758
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:45,880
Speaker 2: which is really rare for a parent and a child.

759
00:38:46,239 --> 00:38:49,200
Speaker 2: Usually you get kind of half the genes from your

760
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:51,319
Speaker 2: mom and half the genes from your dad. But my

761
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:53,959
Speaker 2: dad and I were something like five out of six

762
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:56,719
Speaker 2: match and a twin and six out of six, so

763
00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:02,279
Speaker 2: it was amazing. And yeah, so yeah, there's just a

764
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:06,600
Speaker 2: lot of emotion that went into, you know, that last

765
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:11,839
Speaker 2: run that I did, and I'm so grateful I came

766
00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:13,279
Speaker 2: out with the bronze medal. I was the only a

767
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:16,200
Speaker 2: double leg amputeue competitive rider. You know, I'm running against

768
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:19,239
Speaker 2: girls who have their legs but have some sort of impairment,

769
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:21,840
Speaker 2: but have their legs or have one prosthetic legs. So

770
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:24,799
Speaker 2: at that time I was plenty happy to come in with,

771
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:30,640
Speaker 2: you know, bronze medal, just making the podium. But it's

772
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:33,879
Speaker 2: different that time than it was this time in Korea.

773
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:37,400
Speaker 2: So for so cheap, I put a lot of pressure

774
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,960
Speaker 2: on myself to represent and to represent the sport, and

775
00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 2: I was quite stressed out because of that, like constantly

776
00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:49,960
Speaker 2: working on my legs and I'm a perfectionist, and they

777
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:52,560
Speaker 2: weren't good enough and I could feel what I needed

778
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:54,320
Speaker 2: my legs to do, but I didn't have the equipment

779
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:55,759
Speaker 2: to do it, and so I felt like I was

780
00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 2: just I had this athlete inside of me that wanted

781
00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 2: to blossom, but my legs when it let me, And

782
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:05,600
Speaker 2: so that was frustrating for me. Whereas this time actually

783
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 2: going into the Games, I didn't put that pressure on myself.

784
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:11,920
Speaker 2: I've gone on to do so much outside of snowboarding

785
00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:14,200
Speaker 2: as well that for me, snowboarding is just one thing

786
00:40:14,239 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 2: that I do, It's not everything. And I went in

787
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:22,120
Speaker 2: with a much more open heart and gave myself time

788
00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:24,560
Speaker 2: to work on my legs and took the pressure completely

789
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:29,319
Speaker 2: off and ended up doing better than ever. Really, So

790
00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:31,920
Speaker 2: it's kind of amazing how that happens.

791
00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: It's kind of amazing. As we both like sit here

792
00:40:35,160 --> 00:40:37,960
Speaker 1: wiping tears from our face. I'm trying to be sensitive

793
00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:39,399
Speaker 1: for your time. So I'm going to ask you two

794
00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:44,560
Speaker 1: more questions. First question, best advice that you have ever

795
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:46,000
Speaker 1: been given in your career.

796
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:52,919
Speaker 2: So, outside of snowboarding, I'm a motivational speaker, and that

797
00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:56,719
Speaker 2: is that's a bit more of a career for me

798
00:40:56,760 --> 00:40:59,359
Speaker 2: than even snowboarding. I speak year round and the nice

799
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:02,719
Speaker 2: snowboarding half of the year, and so I think one

800
00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:05,840
Speaker 2: of the best pieces of advice I was given was

801
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:08,719
Speaker 2: from a speaking coach. I was invited to do a

802
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 2: TED talk and worked like crazy on this talk, worked

803
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:15,160
Speaker 2: for three months on the short eight minute talk. Once

804
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:18,319
Speaker 2: again put tons of pressure on myself and I had

805
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:20,799
Speaker 2: never really shared my story before, like I'd never It

806
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:23,239
Speaker 2: was so hard for me to say I have two

807
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:25,840
Speaker 2: prosthetic legs or I lost my legs, like I'd break

808
00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:28,160
Speaker 2: down and cry. It was just this weird, sensitive thing

809
00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:30,680
Speaker 2: for me. And I remember I was backstage and I

810
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:32,759
Speaker 2: was talking to my speaking coach and I said, oh

811
00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:35,040
Speaker 2: my god, what if I cry? And She's like, well,

812
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:37,520
Speaker 2: if you cry, you're meant to cry, and the rest

813
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:39,920
Speaker 2: of the audience will cry with you. And it's all

814
00:41:39,960 --> 00:41:43,680
Speaker 2: about being vulnerable, Like the more vulnerable you can be,

815
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,279
Speaker 2: the more open we can be with each other, and

816
00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 2: that's where people connect. And so I ended up going

817
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:52,120
Speaker 2: out and doing this speech and my voice cracked and

818
00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:53,560
Speaker 2: I had tears in my eyes, and I look in

819
00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:57,279
Speaker 2: the audience and everybody else's crying as well. And that

820
00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:00,800
Speaker 2: speech ended up going viral and it completely changed my life,

821
00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:05,200
Speaker 2: and I ended up going into a full international corporate

822
00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:09,240
Speaker 2: speaking career, which has changed my life.

823
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:12,200
Speaker 1: How does it feel to connect? I'm breaking my own

824
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:14,880
Speaker 1: roles because now there's three questions. How does it feel

825
00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:18,319
Speaker 1: to be able to connect with so many, whether it's

826
00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:22,040
Speaker 1: young women or young men as well, who have disabilities

827
00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:24,359
Speaker 1: of their own, and to be that kind of mentor for.

828
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:27,440
Speaker 2: That, Yeah, it's amazing. But I think what's even bigger

829
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:29,239
Speaker 2: than that is the people who reach out to me.

830
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:33,480
Speaker 2: I'd say fifty percent have disabilities. Fifty percent don't have

831
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:36,920
Speaker 2: physical disabilities, but maybe have gone through something in their lives,

832
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,200
Speaker 2: like even a divorce. I mean, people who reach out

833
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:41,680
Speaker 2: to me are like, your story helped me get through

834
00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:43,600
Speaker 2: some of the toughest times in my life, whatever that

835
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:47,120
Speaker 2: might be for them, And so it's amazing, I mean,

836
00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:50,040
Speaker 2: and once again going back to being vulnerable, if I

837
00:42:50,080 --> 00:42:54,360
Speaker 2: didn't share kind of my deepest, darkest spaces, then I

838
00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:56,640
Speaker 2: wouldn't be able to connect with all these people who

839
00:42:56,680 --> 00:43:00,560
Speaker 2: are dealing with similar things. So when it comes to

840
00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:03,600
Speaker 2: speaking or writing my book or even my social media,

841
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:08,400
Speaker 2: for me, I'm constantly trying to, I guess, wipe off

842
00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 2: the shell and the facade and like show what's really

843
00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 2: underneath and the struggles and the challenges and give insight

844
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:19,360
Speaker 2: on what one thing or another might be like. And

845
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:20,840
Speaker 2: it may have to do with my legs, or it

846
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:23,040
Speaker 2: may have to do with some other challenge in my life.

847
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:25,319
Speaker 2: And that's what's allowed me to connect with.

848
00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:28,319
Speaker 1: So many people and be so authentic. You talk a

849
00:43:28,360 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 1: lot about the pressures that can come with being an

850
00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:35,279
Speaker 1: athlete of your level. What has been one of the

851
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:39,520
Speaker 1: most difficult, what some people might label as failures that

852
00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:43,000
Speaker 1: you have encountered that has taught you the biggest lesson?

853
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 2: I mean, I feel like with snowboarding, there's constant failures,

854
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:53,520
Speaker 2: like you come and last in a World Cup where

855
00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:56,640
Speaker 2: you just you know, there's I'm not the best in

856
00:43:56,680 --> 00:43:58,600
Speaker 2: the world when it comes to snowboarding. I'm really not.

857
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:01,680
Speaker 2: But I do the best I can with what I have,

858
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:04,720
Speaker 2: and oftentimes that's what gets me ahead, is just using

859
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:08,440
Speaker 2: everything I have. And so I don't know if I

860
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:10,759
Speaker 2: can say like it, because there's non stop failures. I

861
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:15,160
Speaker 2: don't think I can really pick one moment that changed

862
00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:18,279
Speaker 2: my life. But I will say that outside of snowboarding,

863
00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:23,480
Speaker 2: I had a major missed opportunity that felt like a failure,

864
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:28,200
Speaker 2: but that ultimately, you know, one door closed and another

865
00:44:28,239 --> 00:44:32,200
Speaker 2: door opened. So I had been I've played around a

866
00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:35,400
Speaker 2: little bit with acting before I became a competitive snowboarder.

867
00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:37,480
Speaker 2: I lived in la and I was taking acting classes,

868
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:39,920
Speaker 2: and so it's something that's kind of always been a

869
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 2: part of me of what I've wanted to do. And

870
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:46,319
Speaker 2: then let me think, oh, it was before soci It

871
00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:48,840
Speaker 2: was just about six months before Sochi. I got this

872
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:53,840
Speaker 2: opportunity to work with Samuel L. Jackson on this big

873
00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:58,000
Speaker 2: film Casual Really Yeah, And I was flown out to

874
00:44:58,080 --> 00:45:02,480
Speaker 2: London and worked with Warner Brothers for a month. I

875
00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:04,000
Speaker 2: was supposed to go out there just for an audition,

876
00:45:04,160 --> 00:45:07,120
Speaker 2: ended up staying for an entire month and working with

877
00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:11,360
Speaker 2: all the casts and basically got this role, and this

878
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:13,880
Speaker 2: role was made for me. It was amazing because I

879
00:45:13,920 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 2: was athletic and I was fit, and I knew how

880
00:45:16,680 --> 00:45:18,759
Speaker 2: to use my legs and I was actually doing a

881
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:23,279
Speaker 2: lot of martial arts on my legs and backflips all

882
00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:26,360
Speaker 2: this stuff, and it all played out really well with

883
00:45:26,440 --> 00:45:29,399
Speaker 2: this character that I was supposed to play. And it's

884
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:33,319
Speaker 2: called the movies called Kingsmen, and so there's I think

885
00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:36,040
Speaker 2: they're on the second edition of Kingsmen that have come out.

886
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:38,440
Speaker 2: But anyway, so I got this role and I was like,

887
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:40,280
Speaker 2: oh my god, this is my big break. I remember

888
00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:44,640
Speaker 2: flying home first class with Champagne and just being like,

889
00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:46,759
Speaker 2: oh my god, this is it, Like my life is

890
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:51,759
Speaker 2: amazing and it's happened. And then I come home, we

891
00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:55,200
Speaker 2: have these special legs made and my bags are packed

892
00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:57,720
Speaker 2: and I'm supposed to go back out to start filming

893
00:45:58,120 --> 00:45:59,000
Speaker 2: and they let me go.

894
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 1: And it was.

895
00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:08,600
Speaker 2: Massive amounts of emotion. I was so heartbroken and I

896
00:46:08,640 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 2: had no idea, you know what. I thought, that's it.

897
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:13,840
Speaker 2: I lost my big break. I can't imagine a better

898
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:16,200
Speaker 2: role for me than this like athletic role that I

899
00:46:16,239 --> 00:46:18,120
Speaker 2: was supposed to be in and I remember I was

900
00:46:18,160 --> 00:46:21,040
Speaker 2: at my prosthetic shop and my prosthetists said, well, it

901
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:23,359
Speaker 2: just means that there's something better around the corner for you,

902
00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:26,040
Speaker 2: and I thought, yeah, yeah, yeah, it thinks, but no,

903
00:46:26,160 --> 00:46:27,759
Speaker 2: I don't think it's going to be any bigger than

904
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:31,360
Speaker 2: like this massive blockbuster film. But there was. There was

905
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:33,920
Speaker 2: something bigger around the corner for me, which was Dancing

906
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:34,520
Speaker 2: with the Stars.

907
00:46:35,120 --> 00:46:40,080
Speaker 1: And I cry every time I see your routine with

908
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:43,480
Speaker 1: Derek huff Ah, Oh my god.

909
00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:46,680
Speaker 2: That's it. People cry even when on our happy dances,

910
00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:49,920
Speaker 2: like with the Happy you know, our salsa dances, people.

911
00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:52,120
Speaker 1: Were like, I cried, yeah, but only human was like.

912
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:56,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that one was. That one was amazing. And

913
00:46:57,120 --> 00:46:58,640
Speaker 2: I had no idea when I went on the show

914
00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:01,719
Speaker 2: we would do something like that, that we'd actually dig

915
00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:06,880
Speaker 2: that deep and be that vulnerable and create something that emotional.

916
00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:09,719
Speaker 2: I thought I was going on and learning to chotch off,

917
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,200
Speaker 2: you know. All of a sudden, it was like I

918
00:47:12,239 --> 00:47:14,760
Speaker 2: had to share, like once again, kind of the deepest

919
00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:18,400
Speaker 2: parts of my life, and it was amazing.

920
00:47:18,600 --> 00:47:19,879
Speaker 1: Was it fun to be a beginner again?

921
00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:22,239
Speaker 2: It's something it was, Yeah, it was, but it was

922
00:47:22,239 --> 00:47:24,400
Speaker 2: also once again tons of pressure. I mean, you're in

923
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:27,440
Speaker 2: front of millions of people every week. It was like

924
00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:30,200
Speaker 2: doing the Paralympic Games every single week, like you've got

925
00:47:30,239 --> 00:47:33,279
Speaker 2: one shot, don't mess it up. Everybody's watching. You know,

926
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:36,560
Speaker 2: if you don't do well, you're out. So there, and

927
00:47:36,640 --> 00:47:39,520
Speaker 2: I put a ton of pressure on myself because I thought,

928
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:43,920
Speaker 2: I'm I was the first double leaking amputative ever do

929
00:47:44,040 --> 00:47:46,520
Speaker 2: anything like that, and to be on network TV doing

930
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:50,840
Speaker 2: something like that, and I thought, I need to represent

931
00:47:50,880 --> 00:47:53,920
Speaker 2: what the possibilities are. And I'm still trying to figure

932
00:47:53,920 --> 00:47:56,160
Speaker 2: out week by week what the possibilities are. But I

933
00:47:56,600 --> 00:47:59,920
Speaker 2: didn't want to let anybody down. I wanted to be

934
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:02,640
Speaker 2: able to show what's possible. But I didn't even know

935
00:48:02,680 --> 00:48:05,440
Speaker 2: what was possible until I was in it doing it

936
00:48:05,719 --> 00:48:09,160
Speaker 2: and had no idea that you know, we'd almost win

937
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:11,439
Speaker 2: and make it to the end and it would change

938
00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 2: my life forever.

939
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:16,080
Speaker 1: Once again, it's nice to have a lot of those

940
00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:21,239
Speaker 1: moments throughout our lives. Right, you have one chance to

941
00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:26,160
Speaker 1: put one last Instagram into the world before they completely

942
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:30,879
Speaker 1: shut your social media counts down. You have the opportunity

943
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:33,320
Speaker 1: to say one more thing to all of these people

944
00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:37,239
Speaker 1: that are following you. What is it that you say

945
00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:37,440
Speaker 1: to that?

946
00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:45,640
Speaker 2: Jeez, I think I would say that you could be

947
00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:47,480
Speaker 2: anything you want to be at any time you want

948
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:51,960
Speaker 2: to be. It like there are no rules, you know.

949
00:48:52,640 --> 00:48:55,359
Speaker 2: I mean, it's kind of cliche that we're the only

950
00:48:55,440 --> 00:48:58,959
Speaker 2: ones that put limits on ourselves, but we are. It's

951
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:01,960
Speaker 2: like any things possible if you work hard enough, if

952
00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:03,440
Speaker 2: you're passionate enough, and you believe.

953
00:49:04,239 --> 00:49:07,799
Speaker 1: I wish beyond wishes that we had so much more

954
00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:10,160
Speaker 1: time to sit here today. Thank you so much for

955
00:49:10,200 --> 00:49:12,200
Speaker 1: taking a time out of your morning to hang out

956
00:49:12,239 --> 00:49:12,480
Speaker 1: with me.

957
00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:14,200
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming all the way out here.

958
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:18,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, man to me, dude, anytime the next time, we'll

959
00:49:18,960 --> 00:49:21,600
Speaker 1: have to go do something really active and fun. Please

960
00:49:21,760 --> 00:49:23,880
Speaker 1: take a moment to leave a quick review by clicking

961
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:26,879
Speaker 1: the link with the description to this episode. We all

962
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:29,880
Speaker 1: face multiple hurdles in life. I want to hear about yours.

963
00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:32,399
Speaker 1: Reach Out to me at Emily at Hurdle dot us.

964
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 1: Connect with the podcast on Instagram and Twitter at Hurdle

965
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:39,000
Speaker 1: Podcast and Amy, why don't you tell me where they

966
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:40,400
Speaker 1: can find you on social media?

967
00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:45,040
Speaker 2: On social I have the same handle for Twitter, Instagram,

968
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:49,040
Speaker 2: and Facebook and it's Amy Purty Girl gu RL.

969
00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:53,680
Speaker 1: I love that Amy pretty Girl. I'm at Emily a body,

970
00:49:54,080 --> 00:50:12,720
Speaker 1: Another hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time. The last time.