NEW YORK (WSVN) — A woman who had her foot nearly bitten off by a shark is now prepared to run a full marathon.
Twenty-five-year-old Connecticut native Ali Truwit is getting ready to run the TCS New York City Marathon, only two years removed from surviving a shark attack.
“I flew to Turks and Caicos with a five-year plan for my life,” she said. “I left on a medical evacuation plane, not sure if I was going to survive.”
Two days after receiving her diploma from Yale University, Truwit took a trip to Turks and Caicos with her friend Sophie.
Truwit said they encountered a shark while snorkeling.
“Pretty quickly, it had my leg in its mouth. Next thing I knew, it had bitten my foot and part of my leg off,” she said.
Truwit credited their competitive swimming experience for saving their lives, as they fought their way back to the boat, where Sophie applied a tourniquet.
Truwit was airlifted to the U.S., where she underwent multiple life-saving surgeries but had to have her left leg amputated below the knee.
“I was 23 years old and had just become an amputee for the rest of my life,” she said.
Last year, Truwit punched her ticket to the Paralympics, where she would go on to win two silver medals swimming for Team USA.
Now on Sunday, she’s ready to conquer land.
“There’s a lot of kind of things, like hills without an ankle are a new thing to learn to navigate, and I’m doing a lot of strength training to make sure my right leg is really strong, to kind of assume some of that pressure,” she said.
Truwit has also started her own nonprofit, Stronger Than You Think, which focuses on water safety, the Paralympics and raising money to provide prosthetics for those in need.
“It is a message of, like, it feels like your life is over, and if you can get your mind around it and use the support around you or whatever is working for you, there is a full and beautiful life ahead you,” she said.
Truwit had also run a marathon just 10 days before the shark attack.
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