Swimmer goes for gold at Paralympics a year after losing leg in shark attack
A U.S. swimmer has reclaimed her love for the water and is going for gold in Paris when the Paralympics kick off this week — just over a year after she lost her leg in a shark attack.
"I love comeback stories," 24-year-old Ali Truwit said. "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."
The Connecticut native and a friend were snorkeling off Turks and Caicos on May 24, 2023 when a shark charged and bit Truwit's lower left leg.
"We tried to fight back," Truwit recalled.
"My immediate thought was, 'Am I crazy or do I not have a foot right now?'" she added. "It was a really hard image for me. But you move immediately into action."
Bleeding and with the shark circling, the former Yale swimmer went into competitive mode and raced 75 yards toward the safety of the boat.
Once on the boat, Truwit's friend Sophie Pilkinton applied a tourniquet to slow the bleeding.
Truwit was rushed to the hospital and airlifted to the United States, where she had three surgeries. On her 23rd birthday, she underwent a transtibial — below-the-knee — amputation.
"A lot of dark days," she said. "But I'm alive and I almost wasn't."
Putting in the work
As Truwit went to rehab, her "why?" began to change. Instead of, "Why did this happen to me?" she centered on, "Why not throw everything into something?"
More specifically, why not the Paralympics? After all, she had plenty of time to get ready for the 2028 Summer Paralympics in Los Angeles.
"But I'm not someone who waits," she said.
So, Paris 2024 it was, even if the time frame was incredibly tight.
She went through prosthetic training and strength exercises. She also worked with trauma therapists, which led to narrative therapy to re-author her life and combat her nightmares.
"So that I don't let fear rule my life," Truwit explained. "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."
She teamed up with her club coach, Jamie Barone, to help her get into contention for a Paralympic spot.
"I was just really curious how I was going to feel being back on the pool deck and back in a competitive space," Truwit said. "The more I worked at it, the flashbacks reduced and the pain lessened."
She qualified for nationals in Orlando, Florida, where she swam freestyle and backstroke. In April, she attended an international meet in Portugal — her first trip out of the country since the shark attack. Her mom was there as she shined in the 400 free S10 category, in which swimmers have a physical impairment affecting one of their joints.
"She's just basically a workhorse who refuses to give up," said her mom, Jody. "That's who she was before the attack and amputation and that's who she is every single day now."
A spot on Team USA
At U.S. Paralympic trials in Minneapolis in late June, Truwit won the 100 backstroke, 400 free and 100 free. She joins a team that includes Paralympic swimming great Jessica Long and a host of returning medalists from Tokyo.
"I think hearing my name on that team was just a reminder to me that I'm stronger than I think," said Truwit. "That we're all stronger than we think."
In Paris, she will have the support of about 50 family members and friends.
"A year ago, I was just working to get back in the water," Truwit said. "I now get back in the water and that sense of joy comes back, and the smile comes back. To have that again is something I'm so thankful for. Honestly, it's one of the moments in my swim career that I'm the proudest of because I know how much work it took."