Two years ago, Ali Truwit’s life changed forever when a shark attack in the Turks and Caicos Islands cost her part of her leg. Then, last summer, the Team USA swimmer made an inspiring comeback by winning two silver medals at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
© IG: Ali Truwit"Two years ago today, my life changed forever. Loss came without warning, and the world I knew shattered. The grief still echoes, but the gratitude for those who fought for me, lifted me up, and helped me rebuild echoes louder. Today, I celebrate them: my heroes. May I be to others who they are to me."
Now, she’s chasing a new goal: running the New York City Marathon this November.
Truwit, 25, finished second in the 400-meter freestyle and the 100-meter backstroke in Paris—performances that fueled her determination to take on the 26.2-mile course winding through the city’s five boroughs on November 2nd.
© Joe Scarnici“Really, since I got home from the Paralympics, that idea [of running the marathon] just planted itself,” she told People. “It started to percolate, ‘What if I could do that and how special would that be?’”
After the attack, Truwit was airlifted to a Miami hospital, where she underwent two life-saving surgeries to fight infection. She was later transferred to New York, where doctors amputated her leg below the knee on her 23rd birthday.
For her, the marathon will be nothing short of a “full circle moment.”
“It’ll be a full circle moment, too, since New York City is also where [I] underwent [my] amputation,” she said.
“There’s a place that can hold some hard memories, and then I can also create new ones that show me again my strength and how far I’ve come as well.”
© Ivan ApfelDoctors performed the amputation to give Truwit better mobility with a prosthetic. Since then, she’s been rebuilding her strength and learning how to run with her new limb, training for the grueling course through Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
“A lot of what’s helped me these past two years are lifelong habits that I have had, and I have a lifelong habit of setting really big, bold goals for myself,” she said.
© Michael Reaves
© Steven Ferdman“With that comes so many times where I fall short and fail, so I have this proven track record of times [when] I went for it, I didn’t get it, I went back, I worked hard, and I eventually got there. Or I didn’t sometimes, but I know that I’ll get right back up.”
