Just weeks after watching his wife Tara Davis-Woodhall claim gold long jump this summer in France , Hunter Woodhall returns to the Olympic Village for his own assault on the medal stand at the Paralympic Games next week.
Woodhall is an American sprinter and three-time Paralympic medalist in the 200m and 400m who lost both of his legs due to fibular hemimelia at just 11 months old.
"I’m not doing this to show people how good I am at track, I am doing this to change the perception of what possible is, to change the perception of what normal is," Woodhall told Sports Illustrated in 2017.
"Maybe what I’m doing isn’t normal, maybe it isn’t something that usually happens, but I want people to be OK with the idea, because there are going to be more people doing things that have never been done before. People need to start realizing that people are amazing, and people are going to do amazing things. We just have to be ready for it."
Raised in Syracuse, Utah, Woodhall faced immediate hardship after his diagnosis with fibular hemimelia, a birth defect affecting 1-40,000 children that leaves them with a shortened or missing fibula bone. After 11 months, Woodhall's parents made the difficult decision to amputate both of his legs and opted for homeschooling early on as he adjusted to life with his disability.
Woodhall faced acute bullying due to his double amputation upon entering public school in fifth grade. And even as he found his calling on the track, Woodhall continued to work past the limitations of low expectations.
“In that moment I realized these people are just content because I am out here doing my best,” he said. “But that wasn’t good enough for me. I wasn’t going to be seen as just someone with a disability, I was going to be seen as an athlete. I knew that the only way I was going to change that perception was to become the best athlete possible, to become the most competitive athlete.”
Woodhall came to excel in sprinting and traveled to Idaho for a 2017 track meet, where he met his wife Davis-Woodhall, and despite the distance — the long jump star hails from Texas — the couple remained in touch and began dating as seniors in high school.
At 17 years old, he would also star in the Paralympic Games, winning silver in the 200m and bronze in the 400m in the T44 category, designated for athletes who have a "single below knee amputation or who can walk with moderately reduced function in one or both legs." Both Woodhall and Davis-Woodhall competed at the Tokyo Games in 2021 as he secured another bronze in the 400m in the T62 division this time, for double-leg amputees running with prosthetics, while Davis-Woodhall finished sixth.
The couple were married in Cabo San Lucas in 2022, and after watching Davis-Woodhall avenge her World Athletics Championships silver medal with a gold in Paris, Woodhall will look to finally get over the hump and secure gold in the 100m and 400m from the City of Light.
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