Last year, Ali Truwit lost her lower leg in a shark attack. Now, she’s a Paralympic medalist

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By Maya Cantina

For Ali Truwit, the past 16 months have been a story of trauma, resilience and — until last night — triumph.

In May 2023, just days after graduating from Yale, the former Division I competitive swimmer was attacked by a shark while snorkeling off the coast of Turks and Caicos. Truwit fought off the animal, which ripped off her foot at the ankle, and escaped by swimming about 50 to 75 yards to a boat. After being airlifted to the hospital, she underwent three surgeries, including one to amputate her left leg just below the knee, as CNN reported.

Despite developing a (very understandable) fear of the water — Truwit told CNN she was conscious of the entire attack — she began competing in para-swimming events last October. Several months later, she won a silver medal at the USA Para Swimming National Championships, and last June, she qualified for the Paris Games.

And now, less than a year and a half after the life-changing attack, she is one of the world’s top Paralympic swimmers: On September 5, the 24-year-old won silver in the women’s 400-meter freestyle S10 at the 2024 Paris Games. Her time 4:31.39 seconds set a new american record. (Aurelie Rivard of Canada won gold, and Hungary’s Bianka Pap took bronze.)

“It’s a real full circle moment and speaks to the support I have around me,” Truwit told the media after the race. “When you actually face death and understand what a second chance at life means, you want to make the most of it.”

Though brief from an outsider’s perspective, Truwit’s journey to the Paralympic podium has been far from easy. Earlier this year, she told US Paraswimming “Water and swimming have always been my first loves.” But the shark attack complicated more than that relationship. As she detailed to US Paraswimming, speed training in the pool unearthed the trauma of having to run for her life to the boat; she also had to relearn many aspects of the sport, including how to start from the blocks and do a flip-turn using only one leg.

Over time, however, Truwit learned to accept his non-linear progress.

“Honestly, at first I thought I would overcome the fear and that would be it,” she said after the race yesterday, The Guardian. “I’ve learned through this journey that it’s not always what it seems, that there will be days when it’s great and there will be days when I have to fight to get that love back, but I’ll say I’m 90-10 right now, feeling really comfortable and happy in the water.”

After yesterday’s run, a smiling Truwit — still in her swimsuit and cap — credited her parents for helping instill in her a sense of optimism and gratitude that has propelled her through the tribulations of the past 16 months. “My parents did an incredible job of raising me and my three siblings to be adaptable and to try to look for the positives in life and appreciate everything that we’ve been given,” the Darien, Connecticut, native said. The Guardian. “And so when I was faced with a life-changing trauma, I worked to see the positives and focus on gratitude, letting that carry me and help me adapt to the situation I was in.”

In this spirit of ebullience, Truwit posted yesterday on his Instagram Story a series of photos from the Paralympics. The caption? “The luckiest girl in the world.”

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