Watch Gwinnett native Kyle Maynard in a brand new Nike ad
Kyle Maynard has, among other things, played football, wrestled, written books, fought in amateur MMA bouts and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Now the Gwinnett County native — a quadruple congenital amputee, meaning he was born without legs and arms below his knees and elbows — is in a commercial for one of the world's most iconic brands.
His inspring new Nike ad aired during the Olympics on Wednesday and was subsequently released online.
“Sometimes when we look at an athlete who has done something in a different way, done something big, done something unique, and we only see the successes," Maynard said in an accompanying story posted on Nike's website. “We don’t see the countless hours of failure that go into it. That failure set us up for the success because we know what we needed to change.”
Maynard, 30, attended Collins Hill cluster schools, where he played football before switching to wrestling in high school. In 2008, he opened a CrossFit gym in Gwinnett called No Excuses and, four years later, became the first amputee to summit Africa's tallest mountain without the benefit of prosthetics.
About the Author
Tyler Estep hosts the AJC Win Column, Atlanta's new weekly destination for all things sports. He also shepherds the Sports Daily and Braves Report newsletters to your inbox.
