The ONE Thing Amy Purdy, Paralympic Medalist: How to Turn Your Greatest Setback into Your Greatest Strength
5 snips
Feb 16, 2026 
Amy Purdy, Paralympic medalist and entrepreneur who rebuilt her life after losing both legs to bacterial meningitis. She describes visualizing a future, engineering prosthetics to snowboard again, and turning pain into purpose. Short, vivid stories explore problem-solving, obsessive craftsmanship, community-driven innovation, and the practice of visualizing your best self to work backward toward it.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Sudden Illness That Changed Everything
- Amy Purdy described getting bacterial meningitis and entering septic shock within 24 hours of first symptoms.
- She spent weeks in a coma, lost kidney function, her spleen, and both legs below the knee before waking to rebuild her life.
Use Storytelling To Regain Agency
- From her hospital bed Amy asked, "If your life were a book, how would you want the story to go?"
- That visualization became an anchor that reframed limitations into a path to what she wanted next.
Duct Tape Prototype Led To First Run
- Amy tested walking prosthetics on a snowboard and found her ankles couldn't flex to get on the toe edge.
- She and her prosthetist reversed an ankle, wedged heels with wood, and used duct tape to create a functional snowboard foot.
