World champion snowboarder and double amputee Amy Purdy, shown here with her dance partner Derek Hough on ABC's "Dancing With The Stars," hasn't let her disability slow her down. Her incredible footwork on the dancing floor while using prosthetic legs has made her a crowd favorite and a powerful contender on the show.

Amy Purdy is shown here with her dance partner Derek Hough during a moving tribute to her father on ABC's "Dancing With The Stars."

Purdy, 34, has lived and breathed snowboarding for most of her life, but when she lost both of her legs as a teenager and her slope shredding days seemed over, she pushed herself to keep going. Having just won the bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi, Purdy is also an entrepreneur and launched a non-profit to help other athletes like her.

Amy Purdy was born and raised in Las Vegas, but always dreamed about snow. Shown here is Purdy as a young girl in this undated family photo.

"I tried snowboarding at 14 and I absolutely fell in love with it," Amy Purdy told "Nightline." "I snowboarded every day off I had, every weekend I had off of school, every holiday we had off from school, and it became a huge part of my life, not just what I love to do, but really just kind of who I was."

Shown here is Amy Purdy dressed for her high school prom in this undated photo.

One day when she was 19, Amy Purdy said she felt weak. and within 24 hours she was in the hospital on life support. Both of her lungs had collapsed. Doctors discovered her blood had become infected with meningitis, a form of deadly bacteria that attacks the protective membranes of the brain and spinal cord. Both of Purdy's legs had to be amputated below her knee, shown here after surgery.

"If somebody would've told me that I was going to lose my legs at the age of 19, I would've thought there's absolutely no way I'd be able to handle that," said Amy Purdy. "But then it happened and I realized that there's so much more to live for, that my life isn't about my legs." This undated photo shows Purdy learning how to walk with prosthetic legs.

When Purdy started out after her recovery back in 2000, there was no prosthetic that worked for snowboarding, so she and her doctor fashioned a foot from scratch that would work on the board. Today, Purdy is a world champion, having won three World Cup gold medals in adaptive snowboarding, in addition to medaling at Sochi. Shown here is Purdy with her award at the World Cup in France in 2011.

Shown here is Amy Prudy when she took first place in the WSF Para-Snowboarding World Cup at the Cardrona Alpine Resort in New Zealand last year, bring home her third gold medal.

If she's not on a snowboard, Amy Purdy can sometimes be found on a wakeboard or a skateboard.

In 2005, Purdy co-founded a non-profit company, Adaptive Action Sports, with her boyfriend Daniel Gale, shown here, hoping to offer other physically-challenged people a chance to experience for themselves what snowboarding has meant for her. "They see that we're not just able-bodied saying 'it's going to be okay,' they see that it's going to be okay," Purdy said.

Amy Purdy's incredible story and abilities have earned her wide acclaim. Madonna asked her to appear in a music video that was later shelved, Motley Crue used her in a photo shoot, and she had a prominent role in the film "What's Bugging Seth?" Purdy is also working on launching her own clothing line, Live Learn Grow.

Amy Purdy has made a life's purpose of sharing her message of triumph with the world through motivational speaking. She gave a highly-acclaimed TED talk in 2012. "Our biggest disability is our, up here," Purdy said, pointing to her head. "This is where we limit ourselves."