Kiril Kudryavtsev / AFP
One will strive for gold in the Paralympic Games, the other has become the Olympic long jump champion. Married in 2022, Americans Hunter Woodhall and long jumper Tara Davis are arguably the most talented pair at the Paris Games.
Paralympic sprinter Hunter Woodhall was born on February 17, 1999. But the child had a congenital defect at birth, due to which both of his legs were amputated at the age of 11 months. Despite everything, Hunter lived an (almost) normal childhood and was involved in many sports: baseball, basketball, wrestling, American football, wakeboarding and even skiing, we read on the Össur website, the world leader in orthopedic prostheses. But racing is what excites the young American the most.
In high school, he excelled as an athletic runner and was on his high school’s track and field team. The performances are there, and the championships are coming one after the other. And just in 2017, at the regional competition in Idaho, he met one Tara Davis, who does long jump and 100m hurdles. “It was love at first sight. I said to myself. “Damn, this girl is great, I’m going to marry her,” Hunter Woodhall said in a 2018 YouTube video. The beginning of a beautiful story.
Engagement in Mexico
Over the years, Hunter Woodhall made a name for himself in handicap sprinting. She even became the first Paralympic athlete to receive an NCAA Division I athletic scholarship Next to her, Tara Davis is still there. The American athlete stands out in the long jump and definitely fell under the spell of Hunter, whom she married on October 16, 2022, after a romantic proposal in Mexico.
Hunter Woodhall and Tara Davis, both 25, now train together and continue to cheer each other on at every sporting event. “Sports has given us everything: the opportunity to work and travel together. We’re so grateful, it gives us a little bit of a lighter approach, it allows us to enjoy what we love to do,” the sprinter recently explained, as we can read on Team USA’s website. And it’s clear that it’s paying off.
This Thursday, August 8, Tara Davis won her first Olympic title at the Paris Games with a jump of 7.10m. Realizing that she had just won the gold medal, the American woman had only one reflex: to throw herself into her husband’s arms. Three words to describe the sequence. Joy, tears, pride. The scene could be repeated in a fortnight when Hunter Woodhall (already a silver and bronze medalist in Rio and Tokyo) will aim for gold in the 400m at the Paralympic Games.
Source: Le Figaro
