Who Is Amy Purdy?
Amy Purdy (Amelia Michelle Purdy) is an American actress, model, para-snowboarder, motivational speaker, clothing designer, and author. She is a 2018 Paralympic silver medalist, 2014 Paralympic bronze medalist, and also co-founder of Adaptive Action Sports.
Amy Purdy Age
Amelia Michelle Purdy was born on November 7, 1979, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. She is 39 years old as of 2018.
Amy Purdy Husband
Purdy got married to her boyfriend of 14 years, Daniel Gale at The Barn in Boise, Idaho with around 160 witnesses in attendance.
Amy Purdy Snowboarder
She began snowboarding seven months after she received her prosthetic legs. Amelia finished third in a snowboarding competition at Mammoth Mountain about a year after her legs were amputated. She finally received a grant from the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) which is a non-profit organization.
Amelia was able to compete in several snowboarding competitions in the U.S through the grant. Amelia was recruited by the CAF as a spokesperson in 2013, and she moved to San Diego to be closer to the CAF headquarters. She then continued her pre-amputee profession as a massage therapist in San Diego. Amelia became involved in the modeling and acting industry. She then played a model in a Madonna music video in February 2003.
Amy started working for Freedom Innovations, a prosthetic feet manufacturer, as its “Amputee Advocate” later in 2003. Amy has also co-founded her own non-profit organization, Adaptive Action Sports. It is a chapter of Disabled Sports USA for individuals with physical disabilities who want to get involved in action sports (snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing) or art and music.
Amy Purdy TV Career
With her husband Daniel, Purdy participated in the 21st season of The Amazing Race in 2012. They finished in 10th place out of 11 teams and were the second team to be eliminated.
She was in a one-hour special on NBC television titled How to Raise an Olympian on February 5, 2014. The program was hosted by Meredith Vieira and chronicled the journeys of seven U.S. Olympians and included interviews with parents and coaches. This was along with home videos and photos from each athlete’s childhood.
She appeared on CBS’s The Price Is Right as a guest model on June 9, 2014. Purdy was also featured in a Super Bowl advert for the Toyota Camry in 2015. She drove the Toyota Camry pace car in the 57th running of the Daytona 500 on February 22, 2015.
On September 13, 2015, Amy was a celebrity judge at the Miss America 2016 pageant. She was also a guest on TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress” in 2015 and the episode first aired on 4/1/2016.
Amy Purdy Dancing With The Stars
Amy was a contestant on season 18 of Dancing with the Stars. He paired with five-time champion Derek Hough and was also the first double amputee contestant to ever appear on the show. Derek was, at the time, fresh from winning his fifth Mirrorball trophy and did not plan on coming back to the show. However, Hough changed his mind when Purdy joined the show as a contestant.
Amy was severally praised for her fast learning skills, immense natural dancing ability, incredible endurance and also passion, and for being a role model. Amy never received any score lower than an 8 despite having no legs. After playing the Argentine tango, Amy received her first perfect score (40 out of 40). This is despite
having an intense back injury the week prior.
Amy was consistently deemed safe to advance to the week after and she also made it all the way to the finale with Olympic ice dancer Gold medalist Meryl Davis and actress Candace Cameron-Bure. She finally finished as a runner-up to Davis, and then Bure took third place.
How Did Amy Purdy Lose Her Legs
Amelia contracted Neisseria meningitidis, a form of bacterial meningitis at the age of 19. This disease affected her circulatory system when the infection led to septic shock and also both of her legs had to be amputated below the knee. She also lost her both kidneys and also her spleen had to be removed. Her chances of survival were very low with the doctors giving her a 2%.
Amy Purdy’s Net Worth
Through her acting career in “ Madonna”, “San Diego”, “Light of My Life” and “Septic shock”, Amy has acquired quite good wealth. Her exact worth is however not yet established.
Amy Purdy Quotes
Some of Amy’s quotes include:
- I have two prosthetic legs. This is my life; what am I going to do with it? And it’s put me on this amazing journey. I can look back and be completely grateful and say I would never want to change anything.
- We all have things that limit us and that challenge us. But really, our real limitations are the ones we believe.
- I always say snowboarding saved my life. It gave me a reason to focus on the future; it gave me something to be passionate about.
- My motivation is not to try to inspire, but rather to do things that inspire me and hopefully that will spread to others.
- If you want something bad enough and you work hard enough, anything’s possible.
- I was on my death bed, and I remember hanging on to these words, ‘Don’t be scared. You are going to live an amazing life,’ and I have.
