Ali Truwit is aiming for gold at the Paralympics just one year after her leg was ripped off by a shark . The American swimmer will make her Paralympic bow in Paris after reclaiming her love of water having overcome the terrifying ordeal.
The 24-year-old was snorkeling in the ocean off the coast of Turks and Caicos on May 24, 2023, when a shark bit the lower part of her leg off. Truwit swam 75 yards towards the safety of the boat as what was believed to be a bull shark circled after bumping swimmers and eventually attacking her.
She and a few friends were in an area not known for sharks when the attack happened. "My immediate thought was, ‘Am I crazy or do I not have a foot right now?” Truwit recalled. "It was a really hard image for me. But you move immediately into action."
Truwit was rushed to hospital and airlifted to a trauma unit in Miami where doctors amputated her leg below the knee on the day of her 23rd birthday. Having overcome her fear of water through wading into her backyard pool, she qualified for the 100m freestyle, 400m freestyle and 100m backstroke.
"I love comeback stories,” she told NBC . "I’ve definitely relied on other people’s comeback stories to help me hold on to what feels like a bold and unrealistic hope — of fighting off a shark and surviving and losing a limb and making the Paralympics all in a year."
Before the attack, Truwit graduated from Yale University and had a career in the pool, swimming for the Yale Bulldogs. She was able to channel her earlier love for the sport as she underwent prosthetic training and strength exercises as well as working with trauma therapists and narrative therapy, which motivated her to get ready for the Paralympics.
"I’m not someone who waits. So that I don’t let fear rule my life,” she added. "I had lost enough and anything that was on the table for me to regain, I was going to fight to regain it. I didn’t want to lose a limb and my love of the water, too.
"I was just really curious how I was going to feel being back on the pool deck and back in a competitive space. The more I worked at it, the flashbacks reduced and the pain lessened."
Truwit won the three events she will be competing in in Paris at the trials in Minneapolis. She will join the team alongside 16-time Paralympic gold medalist Jessica Long and a host of other returning medalists from the Tokyo Games.
"I think hearing my name on that team was just a reminder to me that I’m stronger than I think. That we’re all stronger than we think,” she added. "I’m unique in that I was attacked by a shark, but I’m not unique in that we all go through hardship and trauma and tough times in life. We all have the capacity to rise back up."
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