Sixteen months ago Ali Truwit’s life changed forever.
The date is one she will never forget: May 24, 2023.
Truwit was in Turks and Caicos with her friend Sophie Pilkinton, celebrating her recent graduation from Yale University, where both were members of the swim team.
The two were exploring the crystal-clear Atlantic waters when the unthinkable happened: A shark appeared out of nowhere and attacked Truwit, ultimately biting off her left foot.
Truwit and Pilkinton faced a grueling swim of approximately 75 yards back to their snorkeling boat, where Pilkinton quickly applied a tourniquet to Truwit’s leg to stop the bleeding.
Truwit was then airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, where she underwent two life-saving surgeries.
In a twist of fate, her friend Hannah Walsh, a former Yale diver, was at the very hospital. Instead of joining Truwit and Pilkinton in Turks and Caicos as planned, she stayed behind and picked up a work shift.
Soon she would be caring for her own friend in the most dire of times.
Truwit successfully battled off the infection in her body, and her vitals eventually stabilized. All that was left was one final surgery: an amputation.
On May 31 — just one week after the attack and on her 23rd birthday — Truwit’s left leg was amputated under her knee.
The new reality was a tough pill for a freshly minted college graduate to swallow.
“I was a 22-year-old girl who had just graduated college and, in a flash, had become an amputee for the rest of my life,” Truwit told NBC Olympics. “Body image is a really hard thing for me. I remember in the early days I’d look in the mirror and just sob and be like, ‘I’m so ugly now.’ The immense struggle of learning how to use a prosthetic, the pain, and the flashbacks, and then not loving myself in a new body was something that was really hard.”
Fast forward 465 days, and Truwit has achieved an incredible feat: winning two Paralympic silver medals with two American records in just 48 hours.
The journey and progress she has made are almost beyond her comprehension.
“I’ve had so many moments where I open up my camera roll and look at where I was a year ago today,” Truwit said. “To think about those fears and tears and all the moments of learning life with a prosthetic and to think about where I’m at now is just a surreal moment for me.”
Truwit credits her friends and family — including Pilkinton and Walsh — for where she is today. Not only for helping to save her life, but for providing the support she needed to return to the pool.
“It meant the world to have them in the stands,” Truwit said. “I wouldn’t be here without them so everything I’m doing, it's as much them as it is me. To be able to look up in the stands and see them and 60 other family and friends up there who took time off work and life to come cheer me on, it’s an indescribable feeling.”
Swimming had always been a big part of Truwit’s life growing up. She first began swimming in youth meets and then for the Chelsea Piers swim team while in high school. Her career continued at Yale, where she swam the 500-yard, 1,000-yard and 1,650-yard freestyle.
Swimming as an amputee was a whole new battle, but Truwit was up for the challenge.
Six weeks after the attack, Truwit worked up the courage to get into the pool in her backyard.
“It was by no means real swimming,” Truwit said. “It was mostly just trying to get comfortable in the water again.”
About three and a half months later, she began swimming at Chelsea Piers, just as she did as a kid.
As she worked to reclaim her love for the water, Truwit constantly faced triggers and reminders of the attack. But healing isn't linear — that’s the biggest lesson Truwit has learned over the last year.
“One day you can be on the couch crying and the next you can be on the Paralympic podium and that’s just the process,” she said.
When those terrifying flashbacks occur, Truwit said she tries to replace those visions by thoughts of how strong she was that day, and how strong her support system was too. That brings her a little sense of comfort, as well as the feeling of gratitude for what she says is a second chance at life.
After competing at the 2023 U.S. Paralympic Swimming National Championships in December of 2023, Truwit discovered a new dream: She wanted to make a run for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.
At the time she had a consulting job lined up, but made the choice to delay the start of her career in pursuit of Paralympic glory.
“To be a part of the Paralympic movement and the opportunity to potentially represent my country felt too important to not take the risk,” Truwit said.
She was assessed and classified as an S10 swimmer — a category for athletes with amputations. This marked not just the beginning of a new chapter but the unlocking of her true potential.
Her fastest time in any freestyle race before the attack was 1:09.50. She beat that time at the Paralympic Trials and again in Paris, when she won her second silver medal in the 100m backstroke with a time of 1:08.59.
“It was a faster time than I ever swam with two feet and two legs which is really cool because I do think it’s representative of how fast these Paralympic athletes are,” Truwit said. “To think that I’m now swimming times that are faster than I ever went with two feet is wild to me.”
She credits her coach and a newfound perspective in the pool.
“I think I’ve come into this with a new perspective of really knowing that I’m stronger than I think and that I had more in me than I think,” Truwit said. “I’m a big believer that the mind goes before the body and so I focused on being as mentally strong as I can and I think it does give me an extra push.”
There was a time when Truwit didn’t even want to show her amputated leg on social media, let alone national television. Oh what a difference a year can make.
Now Truwit is leaving Paris with two silver medals, a great sense of pride for how far she has come, and a heart full of gratitude.
“It makes me feel really grateful that I was able to come into the Paralympic space because it's a space where I can appreciate all I do have and focus on all that I can do, as opposed to what I don’t have,” Truwit said.