Paralympian Hunter Woodhall joins wife as a gold medal winner in Paris
By Jacob Lev, CNN
(CNN) — US sprinter Hunter Woodhall won gold in the men’s 400m T62 at the 2024 Paris Paralympics on Friday. After crossing the line, Woodhall kept running to find his wife in the crowd at the Stade de France.
Woodhall found Olympic champion long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall and the two shared a long embrace.
The pair are now both gold medal winners this summer in Paris. Last month, Davis-Woodhall finished first in the women’s long jump at the 2024 Summer Games.
When asked about how it felt to win gold along with his wife, Woodhall joked that he was “waiting to wake up.”
“I have the best team in the world,” Woodhall told the NBC broadcast. “Best team in the world. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Woodhall was born with a fused right ankle and a condition called fibular hemimelia, which affected his left leg. Just before he turned one, he had both his legs amputated from the knees down.
Woodhall thanked Shriners Hospital in Salt Lake City for helping him achieve his goal.
“This gold is as much mine as yours,” Woodhall said.
“That’s one of the first things Tara (Davis-Woodhall) and I planned, going back to Salt Lake City Hospital, seeing all you guys and now we are bringing back two gold medals baby.”
The 25-year-old finished with a time of 46.32.
Germany’s Johannes Floors won silver with a time of 46.90 and the Netherlands’ Olivier Hendriks earned bronze, finishing at 46.91.
Woodhall said he didn’t know he won gold until he crossed the finish line and that the moment “doesn’t feel real.”
In Woodhall’s second event of the day, he won a bronze medal with Team USA in the 4x100m universal relay.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
