Amy Palmiero-Winters is a below-knee amputee who currently holds eleven world records in various events. In 1994, she was involved in a motorcycle accident which crushed her left leg. After three years and twenty-five surgeries, her leg was amputated below the knee. She would not be able to run at all until three years after the amputation
By 2009, Palmiero-Winters had decided to switch from marathons to the more demanding ultramarathons, which are races longer than the marathon distance of 26.2 miles. She would run ten ultramarathons between 2009 and 2010, finishing first in the female division at the Heartland 100 Mile in October 2009 and finishing first overall at the Arizona Road Racers Run to the Future twenty-four-hour race on December 31, 2009 by running 130.4 miles during the allotted time. It was the first time an amputee had won an ultramarathon.
In 2010, she was awarded the James E. Sullivan award as the top amateur athlete in the United States and the ESPN ESPY award as the top female athlete with a disability in the world.