From a shark attack to Paralympic silver: Truwit's remarkable journey | Paralympic Games Paris 2024

Even in the historic world of the Paralympics, where things are never monotonous, it's hard to ignore the fact that one year a shark might bite your leg off and the next you'll be swimming for medals in Paris.

But that's the real story behind the success of Ali Truwit, the 24-year-old former competitive swimmer at Yale and now silver medalist in the S10 Series 400m freestyle at La Défense Arena on Thursday night. She battled a shark in the waters of the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Atlantic Ocean in 2023 and saved her own life by running 70 meters to a boat, losing part of her left leg in the process.

Truwit was always athletic, running, swimming, diving and had just completed a marathon before heading out on a snorkeling trip with her friend Sophie to celebrate her graduation from Yale University on a pristine May morning, days after she graduated. After the attack, she was flown by helicopter to the hospital, where doctors first fought for her life and then operated on her leg, eventually amputating it just below the knee.

What followed was tough – the mental struggle to cope with the loss of a body part and an imaginary life, and both real and phantom pains rippling through her body, especially at night. Water became a phobia. But incredibly, just four months after the attack, she contacted her old swimming coach James Barone and asked him if he could help her again. By the end of October, she was already swimming her first Para competition, where meeting other athletes was a turning point. Less than a year later, after four minutes and 31 seconds in the water, second behind Canadian Aurélie Rivard, she now holds a silver medal.

Where does this extraordinary ability to bounce back come from? “My parents did an incredible job raising me and my three brothers to be adaptable and to try to see the positive in life and appreciate everything we've been given,” she says, grinning in her swimsuit and swim cap. “When I was faced with life-changing trauma, I tried to see the positive and focus on gratitude. I let that carry me and adapt to the situation I found myself in.”

“But I would also say when you're really faced with death and understand what a second chance at life means, you want to make the most of it. I've worked on that and it wasn't without an incredible, incredible support system.”

The water, once friend and then foe, is still a struggle. “Every day there is something new for me that brings up a new memory of the attack because I was conscious the whole time and honestly in the beginning I thought I would overcome the fear and that was it. On this journey I have learned that it doesn't look like that, there will be days where it's great and days where I have to fight to get that love back, but I will say that right now I am 90% comfortable and happy in the water.”

And next? Spending time with her 60 or so loved ones, including her parents and Sophie, who are in Paris, and maybe doing a bit of shopping.

Alice Tai claimed her second gold and fourth medal of the Games by battling through the field to win the S8 50m freestyle. It was a happy night for ParalympicsGB in the splendour of the pool. Tai, who decided to amputate her right leg below the knee just two years ago to ease years of pain, was visibly surprised. “It's usually such a close race, I'm rather shocked I've stayed under 30, I'm getting so close to my old days,” she said. “The 50 is the toughest [race]my diving was pretty hampered by the amputation, I didn't think I'd be able to get back under 30 the next year.”

Just 20 minutes earlier, Becky Redfern had won the SB13 100-meter breaststroke by 1.68 seconds, her first gold medal after silver in Tokyo and Rio. “It feels really surreal,” she said. “I was almost expecting someone to come from lane one and beat me. A gold medal is just crazy.”

The youngest member of the ParalympicsGB team, 13-year-old Iona Winnifrith, took silver in the SB7 100m breaststroke behind neutral athlete Mariia Pavlova.