In a mirror image to their jubilant celebration last month when Tara, 25, leapt into her husband’s arms in the crowd at Paris’ Stade de France stadium after emerging victorious, Hunter, 25, found his wife trackside moments after the race for a long embrace.
Hunter — who had both his legs amputated below the knees when he was 11 months old due to a birth defect called fibular hemimelia — also had his late uncle Wyatt, who died from cancer in 2021, on his mind after crossing the finish line.
In an emotional moment, Hunter took off his paper number affixed to his jersey to reveal a message on the back reading, “Wyatt Woodhall this one’s for you.”
Hunter Woodhall and Tara Davis Woodhall Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
After the race, Woodhall told NBC he was “waiting to wake up.”
“I have the best team in the world,” Hunter gushed. “Best team in the world. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
After returning home following Tara’s gold medal win on August 8, the couple — who got married in 2022 after meeting at a high school track meet in 2017 — basked in the afterglow of her achievement.
“Every single day this year, we’ve just tried to do the right things,” Hunter told CNN . “This is what we train for. Nothing is guaranteed in sports, in athletics anything can happen. So when it actually does go the way that you plan it to, and you just have that moment of relief, it’s surreal. It was a really special moment.”
Tara wasn’t getting caught up in the celebration, though, pointing to Hunter’s competitions on the horizon. “We have some work to do,” she said.
With his eyes set on bringing a gold medal himself, Hunter insisted he had done everything in his power to set himself up for success.
“That’s the goal,” Hunter said. “This has been the most consistent I’ve ever been. It’s the most dialed in I’ve ever been. And I’m running the best I’ve ever ran. I’m the most fit I’ve ever been.
He added, “You know, I can’t control what anybody else does, but what I can do is make sure I go out there and give it my best effort and do exactly what I can.”
The 2024 Paris Paralympics conclude with the closing ceremony on Sunday, September 8.
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