Climber from Kansas City area named one of the most influential people in sports

“Remember to believe in yourself,“ said one of the Times 100 Most Influential People in Sports in 2026. “People are more capable than they realize.”

Mandy Horvath, an adaptive climber from the Kansas City area, was listed as an icon in sports by Time magazine among other athletes and changemakers. The rankings were announced on June 9.

Horvath earned the honor after setting eight world records as a mountain climber. She was the first female double above knee amputee to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Pikes Peak and the Manitou Incline with no prosthetics, using just her upper body. She’s also climbed the Seattle Space Needle, the world’s tallest natural pyramid, Cerro Tusa and the Statue of Liberty.

“It’s important for other amputees to see me without prosthetics because prosthetics are very difficult to obtain,” said Horvath. “They’re very difficult to walk in. It’s a full-time job to be in prosthetics.”

Prosthetics are also not always accessible, she said. It’s a four-week process to get fitted, and she has to fly to Florida to do so, she said.

“I can use prosthetics. I just, I choose not to because people need to see that they’re capable with their own bodies,” she said.

The rankings were announced June 9.

Horvath was, honestly, more excited to see other athletes’ articles from the list, particularly Cheri Devaux, the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby, she said.

“I couldn’t believe that I was on a list with so many other incredible athletes,” said Horvath. “It’s kind of wild because at heart I’ll always be that little girl from Missouri with big dreams.”

The list includes other athletes and influential individuals like LeBron James, Lionel Messi, IShowSpeed, Victor Wembanyama, Alysa Liu and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

When she started climbing, she didn’t really know what she was doing, but she realized she could help herself and other people by doing them, she said. It helps her cope with the post-traumatic stress disorder that she’s struggled with since 2014.

“It’s kind of this give-and-take relationship that I have with my career and my mental health, trying to change something absolutely horrific into something beautiful,” said Horvath.

In 2014, she was struck by a train on July 26 in Steele City, Nebraska at 2:30 in the morning, leaving her legs severed. She ended up on the tracks after she said she was incapacitated with a date rape drug at a bar, she said.

“I died three times,” she said. “It was a very traumatic injury and recovery.”

Before the event, she thought she had life figured out, having graduated from Smithville High School at 16 with honors and already working in the culinary industry, she said.

“I remember being in a hospital bed and crying myself to sleep thinking that the world had ended for me,” she said.

She hopes that now, for anybody going through that process in their own life, she could be a source of inspiration. It means everything to her to give back to her community, opening doors and motivating others to individuals with amputations, said Horvath.

“It’ll mean that all of the pain and the suffering that I’ve been through in my own life will have been worthwhile,” she said.

In 2016, she moved to Colorado and two years later, made her first ever climb. Tired of seeing other people’s photos at the top of Mount Manitou, she decided to make the endeavor herself.

“The general consensus was, ‘Oh, you’re going to kill yourself. This isn’t a good idea. You’re going to be a waste of search and rescue resources, x, y, z.’ I heard it all,” she said.

In April of 2018, she became the first female bilateral amputee to summit the Manitou Incline. The climb was later dedicated to Limb Loss Awareness Month to raise awareness for amputees locally and internationally, after she realized the impact she could make with her climb, she said.

“I realized, like, I have a platform to speak; why did I do this?” she reflected. Since that first climb all of them have been dedicated to different causes. Her next record-setting climb, Pikes Peak, also in 2018, was for Operation Ward 57 and the Battle Buddy Foundation.

“While climbing Pikes Peak, it was a joke. ‘Well, if you can do Pikes Peak, what’s next? Kilimanjaro?’” Horvath remembered being asked.

Her climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world, was announced on The Today Show in 2018 and took place in 2021.

The climb was documented by a film crew, which produced the film “The Ascent” about Horvath’s journey. Directed by Francis Cronin, Edward Drake, and Scott Veltri, it debuted at the SXSW Film Festival and won the Documentary Audience Award for Best Feature. The film also won Horvath the Golden Heart Award from the Mountain Film Festival.

Horvath’s relationship with the mountains and Mother Nature was explored in the movie.

“It’s always the mountain’s game, and the mountains won’t let you summit unless you have a certain amount of respect for them,” she said. “It’s a spiritual connection.”

The documentary wasn’t Horvath’s only time on camera. On the Discovery Channel’s “Naked and Afraid”, she was the first female bilateral amputee to participate and survive 21 days in 2024. She did it also without prosthetics.

“It was really important for not only people that are amputees or otherwise with disabilities to see that, but it was important for the general public to see that and understand that people that are amputees or disabled are capable still. They’re just a little different,” said Horvath.