Bethany Hamilton

Bethany Hamilton became one of the great inspirational stories in professional sports when she returned to the pro surfing circuit after losing her left arm in a shark attack - at age 13. Remarkably, just a month after the Hawaii-based surfer was attacked by the tiger shark, she was back out on her board. Hamilton ended up relating her experiences in a memoir, Soul Surfer, which was later made into a feature film with AnnaSophia Robb and Helen Hunt. The film's release helped catapult Hamilton to a new level of exposure, and she became a fixture on talk shows and other motivational-speaking environments.