Ali Truwit’s journey from a life-threatening shark attack to becoming a beacon of hope, epitomizes resilience and the indomitable human spirit.
Shark Attack
On May 24, 2023, Ali Truwit lost her left foot in a shark attack.
A week later, 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 and left them frantically swimming 75 yards to their boat. Sophie Pilkinton had recently graduated from medical school, so 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.
Comeback
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 set American records in both races. She even swam faster than she ever had before the amputation. 
Ali 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.”
She 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 Olympic platform.
Flashbacks
Ali had an experience she kept to herself until after the Paralympics. She had a practice session at the pool. Ali saw a large, black mobile camera, used by Olympic broadcasters. The camera moves underneath the swimmers following them and chasing them as they compete in crystal-clear blue shallow water. For Ali, it evoked the exact shark-attack conditions that she had fought to survive.
“My body just shook,” she says. “My goggles filled with tears.” She cried with her mother for several hours that night. Four night-terrors woke her up as she tried to sleep. They were flashbacks, related to the details of her shark attack.
She’s sharing the details because, “I’ve realized for my story to be as helpful and accessible and attainable to people as I hope it is, it’s important for me to continue being as open as I can about some of the hard things on the path to recovery. Because the road isn’t always as shiny and bright as it appears.”
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.”
Where do you find the source of your resilience? Please join the conversation and post a comment below.
Hope grows here. We share stories that inspire people, build faith, and offer lasting purpose.
We’d love to have you Subscribe to REVwords. We’ll put helpful content into your inbox Mondays and Fridays.
Amazing and inspiring story! Thanks for sharing! It’s so important to talk about the hard things in life.
Reading Ali’s story was truly amazing and inspirational. It caused me to think how blessed I am to not have had to go through such a trauma. Ali’s story of reliving the horror of the attack in her dreams and how she was able to overcome this trauma with the help of our Lord and saviour was an incentive for me to look to God when I hit my dark times.
Thank you Ali and, thank you Pastor Bob for sharing her story.