Swimmer to compete in first Paralympic Games just one year after losing leg in shark attack

Ali Truwit was on holiday in the Turks and Caicos Islands to celebrate the end of college when her life changed forever.

The talented swimmer, then 22, had represented Yale at college swimming meets and was snorkelling with friend and former teammate Sophie Pilkinton when a shark attacked, biting Truwit on the leg and severing her foot.

Now, just 15 months after that life-changing moment, Truwit is preparing to represent the US at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, which start tomorrow.

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Truwit, 24, grew up in the US state of Connecticut before heading to the prestigious Yale University, where she followed in her mother's footsteps to make the swimming team.

Truwit, who won the 2018 Speedo Sectionals 1500m freestyle, competed in the 2019-20 Ivy League Championship.

After graduating from Yale in May 2023, she was on holiday in Turks and Caicos Islands when tragedy struck.

She recalled the moment during an interview on the Kelly Clarkson Show.

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"So I was two days out from college graduation, snorkelling with a former teammate, one of my best friends from Yale, and a huge shark came out of nowhere and started fighting us," she said.

"And we fought back but the shark bit off my foot and part of my leg during the attack."

The two managed to swim to a waiting boat about 50 metres away.

"Swimming was the first thing that saved my life and the second was my teammate Sophie. She applied a tourniquet on my leg and stopped the bleeding, and I am forever indebted to her," Truwit said.

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Truwit was flown to Miami for urgent medical attention, where a team of trauma doctors fought to save her life.

Also there was another friend from her Yale days, who was attending medical school there.

"I underwent surgeries to fight infection. I had blood transfusions and it ended with an amputation on my 23rd birthday," she said.

Truwit said what followed was a period of "tears, pain and devastation."

"I'm a lifelong athlete. Ten days before the attack I'd run a marathon with my mum and I was sitting there thinking, 'Am I ever going to run again? Am I ever going to be an athlete again?'"

In an interview that aired recently with US Today, Truwit said after leaving hospital she asked her parents to give away all her shorts, short skirts and dresses.

"I didn't want anyone to see my prosthetic leg," she said.

She eventually started swimming again as part of her rehabilitation. Her former coach even came out of retirement to guide her.

By the end of 2023, she was competing and winning medals at the US Paralympics Swimming National Championships.

Then earlier this year, she qualified for the Paralympics.

Among her teammates is Jessica Long, a 16-times Paralympian swimmer for the US who reached out to Truwit.

Now, Truwit has her sights set on Paralympic gold.

She also has a new view on life and counts herself very lucky to be among the few people who survive a shark attack.

"I'm unique in that I was attacked by a shark, but I'm not unique in that we all go through hardship and trauma and tough times in life and we all have the capacity to rise back up," she said.

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