How a 54-year-old nurse practitioner overcame a life-altering amputation to become an elite adaptive athlete.

Diana Jordan had always been into fitness. At one point, this led her to bodybuilding.

Her life took a turn in 2018 when her soon-to-be ex-husband shot her in the leg before shooting himself. His wounds were fatal; hers were not. But, she was in rough shape.

Diana was rushed to the hospital, unconscious.

“The bullet went into my femoral artery, and I completely shattered my femur,” said Diana, a 54-year-old nurse practitioner from Texas. “I was almost dead when I got to the hospital.”

When she finally woke up, she discovered her entire left leg had been amputated and had a long road to recovery ahead of her. This started with a three-month hospital stay.

She insists, though, she took it all in stride.

“I am not your average bear. I have been exposed to so much trauma before and I have been involved in medicine forever. I have done so many different things in my career, and when I woke up, there was a feeling of acceptance,” Diana said.

She continued: “I didn’t experience PTSD. I understand that bad things happen to good people and life goes on. I knew there was no changing my situation, so I was going to live life and kick its ass, and that’s what I have been doing.”

Adapting

After she amazingly recovered and eventually got a prosthetic leg, Diana embraced her new reality of being an adaptive athlete.

Last summer, five years into her adaptive fitness journey, Diana qualified to the Adaptive Games by Wheel/WOD and finished fifth in the women’s above-the-knee lower impairment division. This division had her competing against women more than 20 years younger than her and with much better lower body function.

Leading up to the games, an integral part of Diana’s success can be credited to work with CBG Coach Amanda Jeffrey.

At the time, she was eating well. But she knew she wasn’t eating enough to sustain the twice-a-day workouts she was logging.

“I knew I needed guidance because there were some things I needed to tweak,” Diana said.

Her intuition was right, as Coach Jeffrey immediately increased Diana’s daily food intake in a way that was easy to understand and simple to manage.

“At first, I didn’t want to eat more because in my head I wanted to limit what I was eating, but [Coach] Amanda was like, ‘Just trust the program,’” Diana said.

Diana embraced Coach Jeffery’s guidance. Right away, she noticed her energy increased heading into workouts, during workouts, and her recovery improved as well.

Coach Jeffrey also guided Diana on her game day nutrition—when and how much to eat—which Diana said was invaluable at the Games.

“The changes I made allowed me to perform to my peak potential. I have more energy. I’m stronger, leaner, healthier and am sleeping better. And [Coach] Amanda made it easy to stick with the program,” Diana said.

Currently, Diana is recovering from a recent surgery she had to remove scar tissue that had built up in her abdomen. She is hoping to recover in time for the Open in an attempt to qualify for the Games again this summer.

Diana’s Message

To anyone who might find themselves in a situation like Diana’s, where an unexpected situation or diagnosis hits them hard, she insists mindset is everything.

“You can’t just feel sorry for yourself. My thing is it could always be worse, so embrace where you are and focus on the things that you can do, and do them well,” Diana asserted.

She added, “And you can always do more than you think you can.”