![Ali Truwit wins bronze](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5815x3877+0+0/resize/1100/quality/85/format/webp/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5e%2F58%2Fbef2418f4b1d9f3f23e6cb002781%2Fap24215674605125.jpg)
A shark attack just days after her graduation from Yale last May left former Division I swimmer Ali Truwit with an amputated leg and a host of questions.
“I’m a lifelong athlete — 10 days before the attack I’d run a marathon with my mom,” Truwit told The Kelly Clarkson Show earlier this year. “And I was sitting there thinking, ‘Am I ever going to run again? Am I ever going to be able to be an athlete again?' ”
The answer is an Olympic-sized yes.
Three months after the attack, Truwit competed in her first Para swim meet. Within a year, she had qualified for the Paralympic Games in Paris. And this week, she won two silver medals.
On Thursday, the 24-year-old placed second in the women's 400 meter free S10, the longest distance in Paralympic swimming.
Truwit’s time of 4:31.39 didn’t just earn her a medal; it also set a new American record.
TVNL Comment: Way to go, Ali!!!