Hugh Carey / hcarey@summitdaily.com
Editor’s note: Readers nominated their all-time favorite Summit County athletes for Peak Performers: The Mount Rushmore of Summit County athletes. Voting begins Sunday, Feb. 23, at SummitDaily.com/peakperformers.
Nominee: Amy Purdy
Sport: snowboarding
Las Vegas native Amy Purdy has built a community of adaptive winter sports athletes here in Summit County all while winning three Paralympic medals herself to become one of the most famous adaptive athletes in Team USA history.
A bout of bacterial meningitis in 1999 resulted in Purdy losing both of her legs below the knee. Afterward, she learned to snowboard and had a successful run on the adaptive circuit before co-founding, with her husband Daniel Gale, the Adaptive Action Sports program, which is based out of Copper Mountain Resort. Over recent Winter Olympics, Adaptive Action Sports athletes have brought home numerous medals, including several golds.
Adaptive Action Sports also has grown sports like para banked slalom to be included in major events like the Dew Tour. With Purdy and Gale’s leadership, Adaptive Action Sports has had a big voice in shaping adaptive winter sports, including helping to expand the number of classifications at the Paralympics and recruiting new athletes with various adaptations, both male and female, to partake in the sports.
On the competition scene, Purdy’s long list of accomplishments include a gold medal in para snowboardcross at the 2011 Cardrona New Zealand Winter Games, a bronze in snowboardcross at the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics, and a bronze in banked slalom and a silver in boardercross at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics.