SOURCE: TheChristianHeart.com, 8/19/24; NBCOlympics.com, 9/7/24; The Week, 7/19/24, p.5; "In Other Words," September 2024.
KEYWORDS: Adversity, faith, tragedy, difficulty, challenges, faithfulness,
On May 24, 2023, Ali Truwit lost her left foot in a shark attack. A week later, on May 31st, Ali’s leg was amputated just below the knee…it was her 23rd birthday.
On September 5, 2024, she won the first of her two silver medals at the Paralympic Games in Paris. It all started when Truwit was snorkeling with a friend in Turks and Caicos to celebrate her graduation from Yale. The beautiful day and gorgeous water instantly darkened when a shark attacked, leaving them frantically swimming 75 yards to their boat. Sophie Pilkinton had recently graduated from medical school. She quickly applied a tourniquet to her friend’s leg and managed the stressful emergency until Truwit was airlifted to a hospital in Miami, Florida.
Six weeks after the attack, Ali mustered the courage to get in a backyard pool. She gradually regained her love for the water, and within four months of the attack, she sought a chance to try out for the Paralympics. Her experience on the Yale swim team served her well as she trained 4 to 6 hours per day, six days a week. She not only made the USA team and won two silver medals in Paris, but she also set American records in both races. She even swam faster than she ever had before the amputation.
Truwit said, “My Christian faith played a role in helping me get through the shock and pain of my trauma from the earliest moments of the shark attack and hospitalizations, and even continues today.” Ali grew up hearing her mom regularly repeat Philippians 4:13, and she repeated it to herself thousands of times during the 14 months from the shark attack to the medalists’ platform. That’s why she’s said of her ordeal, “Don’t count yourself out. Have faith in the fact that you can turn trauma and tragedy into hope.”
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"I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)
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