The Science of Snowboarding: Nicole Roundy

The Science of Snowboarding: Nicole Roundy

 During treatment for osteogenic sarcoma, a form of bone cancer, Nicole Roundy’s right leg was amputated above her right knee. She was only eight years old at the time. Less than a decade later, Nicole was on skis, but triple track skiing didn’t quite do it for her, so she set her sights on snowboarding. Today, she’s one of the top-ranked adaptive snowboarders in the world, recently taking bronze for Team USA in the IPC World Cup in La Molina, Spain, and she’ll represent the United States in the Paralympic Games in Sochi.

Snowboarding is an art and a science, and in this fascinating TEDxSaltLakeCity talk Nicole Roundy shows us how the mechanics of the knee play a crucial role in this winter wonderland professional sport. She highlights that creating a prosthetic knee capable of snowboarding is far more complicated than you might think.

As a child, Nicole was ambitious, energetic and outgoing. Then at 8 years old, she was diagnosed with Osteogenic Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Later that year she lost her right leg above-the-knee.
As any individual touched by cancer, Nicole's life took a dramatic turn. Following the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic games, Nicole stepped onto a ski slope for the first time. The beauty, adrenaline and excitement of three-track skiing captivated her, but something was missing. Deemed ""impossible"" due to a lack of prosthetic knee technology, Nicole found her passion in snowboarding.
In 2006 she became the first above-knee amputee, male or female, to compete in adaptive snowboarding. Her accomplishments spearheaded global demand for prosthetic knee technology and played a fundamental role in the introduction of snowboarding to the Paralympic roster. Nicole represented the United States in the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games and is an 8X World Cup Medalist.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx