From a shark attack to Paralympic silver: Truwit’s remarkable journey

American wins medal just 16 months after losing a leg while Becky Redfern and Alice Tai win golds for Great Britain Even in the story-laden world of the Paralympics, where things are never monochrome, it is hard to trump getting your leg bitten off by a shark one year and swimming for medals in Paris the next. Yet that is the true tale behind the success of Ali Truwit, the 24-year-old former Yale competitive swimmer and now silver medallist at La Défense Arena in the S10 400m freestyle on Thursday night, who in 2023 fought off a shark in the waters of Turks and Caicos in the Atlantic Ocean, and saved her own life by racing 70 metres to a boat, having lost part of her left leg.