Amy Purdy

I was 19 years old, and I felt like I had the flu one day. Within 24 hours, I was in the hospital on life support, and I was given less than a 2 percent chance of living. It took five days for the doctors to find out that I had contracted bacterial meningitis.

Taking off your clothes is one thing. Taking off your clothes and your legs is an entirely different matter.

In my dreams, whatever I am doing, I look down to see if I have prosthetics. It sets my time frame in my dream, I think. I'd have these dreams that I am running and launching myself, and I look down and see that I have prosthetics. I have a lot of those, where I do great, amazing things with my prosthetics.

We all have challenges. You can let them be obstacles or roadblocks, or you can use them.

Since losing my legs, I've found out that I am able to help other people by sharing how I've overcome my obstacles.

As for how do I respond to those who want to throw stones, well, I don't.

Every day that I am healthy, I want to use that day to its fullest now.

My motivation is not to try to inspire, but rather to do things that inspire me and hopefully that will spread to others.

In snowboarding, I've always looked at really strong competitors through a lens of gratitude rather than envy in the sense that the better my competition is, the more it forces me to work hard, focus, and be better myself if I want to succeed, which I do.

You don't have to be positive all the time.

I feel that losing both my legs was a blessing. It was meant to happen to me: I wouldn't have had the opportunity to touch so many lives in such a positive way.

I've always been driven, and I like the creative aspect of figuring things out.