4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 21 June 2025
⏱️ 107 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Kyle Maynard is an entrepreneur, speaker, best selling author, award-winning extreme athlete, and the first man to bearcrawl to the top of the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro (19,340 feet), and the summit of Argentina’s Mount Aconcagua (22,838 feet), the highest peak in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres.
Born with a rare condition known as congenital amputation, that left him with arms that end at the elbows and legs that end near his knees, he learned early on to live life independently and without prosthetics. Kyle thrives on physical challenges and is a champion wrestler, CrossFit Certified Instructor and gym owner, competitive Mixed Martial Arts fighter, world record-setting weightlifter, and skilled mountaineer.
He is on a mission to make the world a better place and to inspire others to do the same by sharing his story and living by example. He travels across continents, speaking to thousands of executives and students, athletes and warriors, to share his "No Excuses" philosophy. He is a humanitarian who passionately supports numerous charities, and commits time and resources to work with wounded and recovering U.S. military veterans.
Kyle is the New York Times best selling author of his life story, “No Excuses,” and the focus of the moving ESPN documentary, “A Fighting Chance.” His story has been featured in countless television programs and editorials, which have been viewed by millions around the world.
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0:00.0 | Welcome to episode 124 of Behind the Shield podcast. As always, my name's James Gearing, and I am so |
0:06.0 | excited to bring to you this week, Kyle Maynard. Now, the name should ring a bell. I'm sure you've |
0:12.3 | probably seen him on interviews on television, on viral videos, on social media, but Kyle is one of the epitomies of overcoming obstacles. |
0:23.2 | And we've had many, many people on this show that have also done the same thing. |
0:27.1 | But Kyle was born without any arms or legs kind of below the joint, the knee and the elbow. |
0:33.1 | And he found a way to become a football player, found a way to be a successful wrestler, a successful MMA athlete, and then ultimately climb two of the highest peaks on the planet. |
0:44.7 | So his ability to reverse engineer a situation that he's told he can't do and find a way to do it. |
0:52.1 | And then the mental toughness it took to undertake some |
0:56.2 | of these ventures that he's been on is a inspirational, but be just just educational and |
1:02.3 | resets that bar to anyone that's listening. It certainly did for me. So you guys are going to be |
1:08.5 | inspired by this. You're going to enjoy it. He's an incredibly humble |
1:11.9 | human being and this was so much fun to do. Before we go on, as I always say, please go on to iTunes, |
1:18.1 | rate the show, give me feedback on the show and then share. The best thing you can do is just |
1:23.6 | help me share this and get these incredible life stories to everyone on the planet |
1:28.0 | because these people's tales and their journeys that they've been through are truly inspirational |
1:34.4 | in a world of negativity. These positive stories, I think, need to be heard. So with that being said, |
1:40.0 | I introduced to you, Kyle Maynard. Enjoy. Well, Kyle, first firstly, I want to thank you so much for agreeing to come on the podcast. |
2:08.1 | I know you've done a few and you've been on all kinds of media outlets, but, you know, |
2:12.7 | I know that your journey and some of the things that I've heard you talk about with other people |
2:17.2 | is going to definitely resonate deeply with the people listening to this as well so thank you |
2:21.6 | firstly yeah thanks man thank you for having me all right thank you for your community too for |
2:26.5 | everything that they do yeah well they are pretty amazing I gotta say um you know I'm enamored by |
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