{"id":2451143,"date":"2019-11-14T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T03:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/purdy-focuses-on-para-community-after-scare\/"},"modified":"2019-11-14T20:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T03:40:00","slug":"paralympic-legend-amy-purdy-focuses-on-para-community-after-recent-health-scare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/paralympic-legend-amy-purdy-focuses-on-para-community-after-recent-health-scare\/","title":{"rendered":"Paralympic legend Amy Purdy focuses on para community after recent health scare"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
U.S. Paralympic legend and Adaptive Action Sports founder Amy Purdy smiles ahead of last December’s Dew Tour adaptive snowboard banked slalom event at Breckenridge Ski Resort.<\/strong>
Summit Daily file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

COPPER RESORT \u2014 On Friday evening at the ninth annual Easterseals Colorado Season of Lights Gala in Denver, Summit County local and U.S. Paralympic legend Amy Purdy will receive the inaugural Jake Jabs Community Impact Award.<\/p>\n

For an accomplished athlete and pop-culture star like Purdy, Friday\u2019s honor will be the latest award in a jet-setting career where she\u2019s been in the spotlight routinely \u2014 including as a participant on the \u201cDancing with the Stars\u201d television show. That said, the Easterseals community impact award comes at a pivotal time for Purdy and the Adaptive Action Sports para-snowboard program she co-founded with her husband and Adaptive Action Sports Executive Director Daniel Gale.<\/p>\n

On one hand, Adaptive Action Sports was the United States\u2019 contingent at this week\u2019s para-snowboard World Cup events in the Netherlands, as five athletes who train at Copper Mountain Resort continued their Paralympic dreams. Beyond the U.S., with more than 80 athletes and 17 countries on hand, it was the largest season-opening para-snowboard event ever.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Purdy \u2014 who lost her legs in 1999 due to bacterial meningitis \u2014 has surfed the struggle of another health complication over the past nine months. It\u2019s one that disabled her from being able to use her prosthetic legs. In turn, the situation has paused her ability to snowboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last nine months were devastating,\u201d Purdy said Thursday. \u201cI\u2019ve grown to be very attached to my legs as they are. Even my prosthetic legs are an extension of me. So after I spent so many years working up to where I am today, to think I could be losing that was difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purdy said her health scare this year stemmed from a blood-clotting complication related to the wear-and-tear of walking and snowboarding on her prosthetic legs for many years.<\/p>\n

When she receives the Jake Jabs Community Impact Award on Friday, Purdy will share with the Easterseals crowd the elements of community that have not only helped Adaptive Action Sports to grow but also have helped her to persevere despite her health complication.<\/p>\n

Growing the sport<\/p>\n

More than 80 athletes and 17 countries competing in para-snowboarding is a far cry from the para-snowboard world Purdy entered at age 19. Afterward, Purdy took the simple steps to merely snowboard again. Eventually, her effort and drive spawned Adaptive Action Sports and enough interest in para-snowboarding to compete at the Paralympics and to attract many more World Cup participants and divisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really amazing,\u201d Purdy said Thursday. \u201cI will tell you, when I started it was just me in Las Vegas, dreaming of snowboarding again. But I had to build my own (prosthetic) feet to snowboard. There were no resources out there. But I connected a few people online to take a snowboarding trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fast forward a decade and a half, and the simplicity of Purdy\u2019s digitally organized snowboarding trip has evolved into Adaptive Action Sports partnering with Dew Tour to operate para-snowboarding competitions. That includes this coming February\u2019s Dew Tour at Copper Mountain. Purdy has been an elite competitor at those Dew Tours, including in Breckenridge last December.<\/p>\n

With para snowboarding growing while Adaptive Action Sports has been based in Summit, the organization has provided opportunities for dozens of para-snowboarders \u2014 whether they have Paralympic ambitions or hopes to use the opportunity in a more cathartic recreational way. Through it all, the Summit County and greater Colorado communities have repaid Adaptive Action Sports with community support in the same spirit the organization provides.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely taken on a life of its own,\u201d Purdy said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing and makes me think, \u2018If something doesn\u2019t exist, you can create it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny little kid now who has a disability can look on TV,\u201d Purdy added, \u201cwatch a Paralympic Games and think, \u2018If they can do that, I can, as well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Due to the health complication, Purdy\u2019s snowboard career came to a sudden stop just three months after December\u2019s Dew Tour. Less than a year after Purdy won silver and gold medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Paralympics, she again experienced a life-changing moment in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

While flying from one speaking engagement in Las Vegas to another in Nebraska, Purdy noticed a cramp in her left calf. By the time she woke up in Nebraska, her leg hurt so badly she decided to jump on another plane to return to Denver. When she did, she checked herself into the emergency room at St. Anthony Hospital to make sure the pain was nothing serious.<\/p>\n

But it was. Purdy then found out about the massive blood clot from her hip down every artery in her left leg. Purdy said she and the doctors believe it was the end result of an injured artery behind her knee due to constant pressure from her prosthetic. As she went through the four-surgery process to remove the clot and stretch out her arteries affected by the trauma of her blood clot, Purdy\u2019s frustration mounted. She\u2019s used to doctors being able to fix things and, in this case, it wasn\u2019t so simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I eventually sank into, \u2018I\u2019ve been here before; I can do it again,\u2019\u201d Purdy said. \u201c\u2018I have preserved before. I can do it again. I can find a way or adapt.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Purdy said a day-by-day approach to her prosthetic-less situation has helped her mentally. With that, she said she\u2019s progressed significantly in recent months. Purdy\u2019s hopeful the next step is to make a prosthetic leg that will enable her to exercise on a spin bike. She hopes that will help her build muscle to improve blood flow. If and when that\u2019s successful, she hopes to be strong enough to be able to walk in a prosthetic. And, best case scenario, it\u2019ll all lead to snowboarding again.<\/p>\n

aolivero@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Paralympic legend and Adaptive Action Sports founder Amy Purdy smiles ahead of last December’s Dew Tour adaptive snowboard banked slalom event at Breckenridge Ski Resort.Summit Daily file COPPER RESORT \u2014 On Friday evening at the ninth annual Easterseals Colorado Season of Lights Gala in Denver, Summit County local and U.S. Paralympic legend Amy Purdy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 06:20:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}