Paralympian Shares Her Story with More Than 300 UNE Students in Intersectionality Series

Wearing her U.S. Paralympic Team jacket with her prosthetic leg showing, Noelle Lambert stood before a packed crowd in the University of New England’s Harold Alfond Forum and shared the story of how her left leg was severed in a moped accident following her first year of college and how she went on to become the first above-the-knee amputee to compete at the Division I level in lacrosse — before switching sports, qualifying for two Paralympic Games, and going on to compete on the hit show “Survivor.” 

Yet, more than her remarkable athletic success, it was Lambert’s frank admission of self-doubt that resonated with many students in the crowd of more than 300 who came to the Intersectionality Speaker Series on Sept. 30. More than a few found wisdom in Lambert's overarching message: that to care for our mental health, we need to let others in and share our pain. 

“Her process, her struggle, was big for me,” said Kha Cao Ra “Ray” James (Finance and Psychology, ’27), a sophomore on the men’s basketball team. “How she talked of bottling up her emotions, that’s also hard for me, too. She became committed to overcoming that and so much more, both mentally and physically.” 

Katie Hawke, M.S., clinical professor in UNE’s Department of Exercise and Sport Performance, who saw Lambert speak previously, helped bring the motivational speaker to UNE. Lambert’s talk also was sponsored by the Department of Athletics, the Female Athlete Alliance, the Occupational Studies Program, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, UNE’s Club Sports Council, the Westbrook College of Health Professions, the Dean's Office, and the Woman in Sports Management Club. 

Lambert held back nothing in telling her story, which started with a college athletic career filled with promise. After earning an athletic scholarship to the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, she ended up a top scorer her rookie year. Then came the accident before her sophomore year that changed her life in an instant. 

“The first thing I thought of was sports because I didn’t know who I was as a person without being active or being an athlete in some way,” Lambert shared. “I felt as though I was broken, and I didn't think I was worthy of love because I thought being disabled was something that was a negative.” 

But her coaches came to see her in the hospital and welcomed her back to the team. And her teammates wanted her on the field. So, Lambert obtained a running prosthetic, called a blade, and went to work to learn to run again and earn a spot on the team. 

She had to work twice as hard as everyone else, and she did, waking at 5 a.m. and staying after practice to get in extra drills. Until one day she realized she was only practicing and never competing in games. She broke down crying hysterically in front of an assistant coach. 

“I never wanted people to pity me or feel sorry for me. And I portrayed an image out of my social media that I was okay with everything,” said Lambert of Manchester, New Hampshire. “But the unhealthy part about it was I was bottling up all my emotions and I wasn't sharing how I was feeling with anybody. And I remember lifting my head, expecting my assistant coach to comfort me. And instead, she had a huge smile on her face and said, ‘Noelle, this is what we have been waiting for. We have been waiting for you to let us in because we know that you cannot go through something like this on your own.’” 

After that, Lambert started to rely on her friends, teammates, coaches, and family. And when she played in her first game, that support propelled her. She raced around on her blade taking shots on goal until she drilled one into the back of the net. 

“I dropped my stick and started sprinting toward my bench because I wanted to celebrate with the people that made that moment possible. Because, believe me, if it was up to me, I would've quit that first couple of weeks,” Lambert said. 

After she graduated in 2019, Lambert founded The Born to Run Foundation to help raise money and provide prosthetic sports limbs to other amputees. To date, the foundation has donated 32 specialized prosthetics and welcomed those athletes into the Born to Run family to offer them support, as well. She also switched sports to try to earn a spot on the U.S. Paralympic Track and Field Team, which she did for both the Tokyo and Paris Paralympic Games. 

“I needed to give back all the support and helping hands that I received and portray a message out to the world that if I can go through something like my accident, still live out my dreams, 100% so can anybody else,” Lambert said. 

Not that moments of doubt were behind her.  

Lambert questioned her abilities and drive when she competed in her first track meet in Arizona, and when she competed at the Tokyo Games in the 100-meter dash, and when she was invited to compete in Fiji in the long running hit show “Survivor,” to become one of the few amputees to do so. 

Lambert worried how the world would view her. Until she realized, that’s the whole point. 

“I was thinking to myself, ‘If I don't do this, then who is going to? Who is going to show that positive representation for the amputee community?’ I told myself, ‘I'm doing this for that one person watching me that believes that they can, too,’” Lambert said. 

When the show aired, messages flooded her Instagram account as people from around the world thanked her. 

As UNE’s Female Athlete Alliance president Elizabeth Goodrich (Applied Exercise Science, ’25) stood by and watched Lambert speak with UNE students after her talk, she said Lambert’s powerful story would help her. 

“When I’m injured again during rugby, or even at future public speaking events, I’ll remember this: the idea of putting yourself out there, to let doubt be the motivation. She’s amazing,” Goodrich said.