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Summary
Former Yale swimmer Ali Truwit faced unimaginable adversity after losing part of her leg in a May 2023 shark attack. Just one year later, she defied expectations, earning two silver medals at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games and setting American records. Truwit’s incredible resilience saw her return to elite swimming and complete the New York City Marathon in 2025, raising $250,000 for her nonprofit, “Stronger Than You Think.” Now, she’s training for the LA28 Paralympics, aiming to inspire others by demonstrating that strength is often revealed through adversity. Her powerful message emphasizes celebrating small victories and realizing you are stronger than you think.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: Ali Truwit speaks at Forbes Power Women’s Summit 2024 on September 11, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)
(This is part one of a two-part story based on a Forbes exclusive interview with Ali Truwit on August 27, 2026. All quotes are taken directly from a transcript of the interview.)
There are moments in life when we discover
There are moments in life when we discover something about ourselves that we never wanted to know. For Ali Truwit, that moment came in May 2023. She had just graduated from Yale, where she had been an accomplished swimmer. Her college career was behind her; As a bright, beautiful student athlete from an Ivy League university she had every reason to be optimistic and excited about the next chapter.
Then, while snorkeling in Turks and Caicos with her former Yale swimming teammate and close friend Sophie Pilkinton, a shark attacked. Truwit lost her foot and part of her leg. In an instant, the future she had imagined was replaced by a question that was far more immediate:
What happens now?
Nearly three and a half years later, that question has produced an answer that would have seemed impossible in those dark days following the attack: Truwit soon returned to elite swimming. She became a member of Team USA. She won two silver medals at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. And she created a nonprofit called Stronger Than You Think, a name that is much more than an organization. Ali will tell you it’s a philosophy of her life.
When I spoke with Truwit on August 27,
When I spoke with Truwit on August 27, 2026, she was in Southern California preparing for three races: the 100-meter freestyle, the 400-meter freestyle and the 100-meter backstroke. The conversation was about swimming. But it was ultimately about something much bigger. It was about discovering strength you don’t know you have until life requires you to find it. Before the shark attack, swimming had been a defining part of Truwit’s identity.
At Yale, she was a distance swimmer. Her specialty included the 1,650-yard freestyle—the swimming equivalent of a mile. When I joked with her about her choice of distance races being suffering events, she laughed. “Yes,” she said. Her mother was also a swimmer and encouraged her to try sprinting.
“But I was like, my arms just don’t move that fast,” Truwit said.
So she gravitated toward distance. It turned out to be useful preparation for life. Because endurance would become one of her greatest assets. Not just physical endurance.
Emotional endurance. Psychological endurance
Emotional endurance. Psychological endurance. The ability to keep moving when the finish line is a long ways off.
The months after the attack were about survival and rehabilitation. Walking had to be relearned. Her relationship with her body had changed. The future was uncertain. And swimming, the activity that had been so familiar for so many years, momentarily may have seemed like something that belonged to her old life.
Then Truwit did something important. She went back to a swim meet. About three and a half months after losing her leg, she asked her parents to take her to a Paralympic swimming competition. She wasn’t there because she knew what her future would be. She was there to see what might still be possible.
Could she do this? Could she still swim? Could she compete again?
The answer unfolded one baby step
The answer unfolded one baby step at a time. At the 2024 U.S. Paralympic Trials, Truwit swam the 100-meter backstroke in 1:08.98—faster than her previous best time before the shark attack. The impossible was becoming measurable.
There is a tendency to describe extraordinary athletes as if they possessed superhuman traits. Truwit’s story suggests something more human. Strength is revealed not when you know you can do something; Sometimes strength means trying when you don’t know.
The first swim wasn’t proof that she would make Team USA. The first race wasn’t proof that she would win a Paralympic medal. The first step with a prosthetic wasn’t proof that she would eventually run a marathon. Each step simply made the next step a little more imaginable. That is the deeper meaning behind Stronger Than You Think. You don’t necessarily discover your strength before adversity. Sometimes adversity introduces you to it.
Just one year after losing her leg, Truwit would become a Paralympian.
At Paris 2024, she won silver medals
At Paris 2024, she won silver medals in the 100-meter backstroke and 400-meter freestyle and set American records in both S10 events. The transformation was extraordinary.
But the medals were simply the result of Ali committing to a process one baby step at a time. Every rehabilitation session. Every swim. Every difficult morning. Every time she had to confront something that her mind told her might be too hard.
Keep going.
That lesson is one Truwit now wants other people to understand. During our conversation, she emphasized the importance of celebrating partial success on the way to a larger goal. It sounds simple. But it is one of the most difficult things for high achievers to do.
We tend to measure ourselves against the final objective. Did we win?
Truwit’s experience has taught her to notice something
Truwit’s experience has taught her to notice something else. Progress. The small victories are not distractions from the goal. They are how the goal is reached. Each one creates evidence that another step is possible.
Swimming was not the only place Truwit discovered that she was stronger than she thought. Running became another test. Ten days before the shark attack, she had completed a marathon with her mother. After losing her leg, running again seemed unimaginable. But eventually she learned to run with a prosthetic blade. Then, less than two years after the attack, she entered the New York City Marathon on November 2, 2025.
She would finish in 4:14:34.
And, consistent with the philosophy that increasingly defines her life, the race wasn’t simply about her. She used the marathon to raise approximately $250,000 for Stronger Than You Think. A woman who had once wondered how she would walk again was now running 26.2 miles to help someone else.
Now Truwit is swimming again
Now Truwit is swimming again. The 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles are less than two years away. For an athlete, that means another training cycle. Another opportunity.
But LA28 represents something more for Truwit.
The Games will take place in the country she represents, in a region where millions of people will have an opportunity to see Paralympic athletes up close. And Truwit understands the importance of that visibility. Because somebody once had to show her what was possible. Now she has an opportunity to do the same for someone else. When she dives into the pool in Los Angeles, the story will not simply be about a swimmer who lost part of her leg. It will be about an athlete who discovered it is all about how we choose to see our lives including our limitations.
At the end of our conversation, Truwit was looking forward. Next year’s World Championships will be an important milestone. Then comes more training. More races. More work.
We’re under two years out now, she told
“We’re under two years out now,” she told me. “Time to put my head down and train hard.”
Truwit isn’t promising that everything will be easy. She isn’t claiming that adversity doesn’t hurt. And she also isn’t suggesting that determination magically erases tragedy. She is simply saying: Keep going. Celebrate the little successes along the way. Choose gratitude.
And remain open to the possibility that youare stronger than you think.
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Source: www.forbes.com
