Paris: The Paralympic Games in Paris has given us human stories in nearly every event and we can now add Ali Truwit's to a long list of stories of overcoming extreme adversity.
The 24-year-old American claimed the silver medal in the S10 400 meters freestyle on Thursday, less a year and a half after losing half of her left leg in a shark attack.
In May 2023, Truwit was attacked by a shark while snorkeling in waters off the Turks and Caicos Islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She had to swim 70 meters to the dive boat, where a friend tied a tourniquet around her leg to stop the loss of blood. Doctors saved her life, but had to amputate her leg below the knee, but after overcoming an initial fear of water, she returned to training just four months after the attack and competed in her first Paralympic event in October.
"There will be days when it's great and there are going to be days when I have to fight to get that love back, but I say I'm at a 90-10 right now at really feeling comfortable and happy in the water," she told the press after winning her medal, admitting that events of last May are still very close at hand.
"Every day there is something new for me that evokes a new memory from the attack, because I was conscious the whole time, and truthfully, at the start, I thought that it was going to be that I overcame the fear and that was it. I've learned through this journey that that isn't what this looks like, that," she admitted.
Truwit said her resilience came from her parents who taught her to "to look for the positives in life and appreciate all we've been given. (...) so when I was faced with a life-changing trauma, I worked to see the positives and let that carry me and adapt to the situation."
However, she adds that coming so close to dying also made her appreciate just what life means, "you understand what a second chance at life means, you want to make the most of it. I've worked to do that and it has not been without an incredible, incredible support system," said the swimmer.