“I had all kinds of people laugh at my dream to make it my career.” Hunter Woodhall, the man who had his legs amputated at 11 months old, was laughed at by the people not only because he had lost his legs but because he dared to dream, just because he wanted to run. The words didn’t bring him down. and today the man has 5 Paralympic medals in track and field. isn’t one of the very best to prove he wasn’t dreaming anything absurd. The athlete knows what it means to be bullied. At one point in his life, it was difficult for him to deal with it, but today he knows how to overcome it. And so he is giving out his mantra! Yes, you heard that right!

In a video posted today on Tara and Hunter, the Woodhalls couple’s YouTube channel, Hunter was approached by a kid who sought advice over getting teased, and Hunter had no other option than to reveal the kid’s superpower. He said, “Everything they’re making fun of you for, anything they’re pointing out about you, when you get older, it’s going to be your superpower.” He told him to channel the teasing into something more powerful.

This superpower is also what he believed the change would come from further saying, “It’s going to be what you change the world with, right? So you’ve got to be proud of being different.” Hunter told the kid to be proud of what he was and told him “……to be proud of looking different, doing things different, because that’s what makes a difference in the world, right?” And we all know how small words can have a great effect on kids, right? It makes them want to change themselves to fit in, to be someone else.

Well, Hunter made sure that it didn’t happen to this one, and thus he said, “You’re exactly who you need to be, so don’t feel like you need to be anybody else but yourself, all right?” But the best advice did come up in the last, “Forget those kids, man. Don’t worry about them.” The glee was quite noticeable on the kid’s face. And the worried wrinkles quickly turned into some happy smiles as he got to have a handshake and a fist bump as well from the Olympian. All this happened when the Paralympian and his wife, Tara Davis Woodhall, were interacting with the fans at the Tara Davis Invitational, which was held on March 1.

The Tara Davis Invitational is a track and field event hosted by Tara Davis Woodhall’s high school, Agoura High School, in honor of her contributions and legacy. What started in 2024 saw over 1,500 athletes in 2025, over 3x the size of last year. This must be a proud moment not only for Tara but for Hunter as well.

But, Hunter Woodhall has had his share of rough days!

Hunter Woodhall’s childhood wasn’t easy!

Hunter didn’t have an easy childhood; he was one month away from completing a year of his birth when he had to get his legs amputated, and what followed was bullying. In the early years, the 26-year-old was homeschooled through the first half of elementary school, and then when he went to school, he faced bullying from other kids because of his disability. Hunter was someone the kids made fun of because he was different, and it took a toll on him and pushed him to isolation.

“That was a really tough time for me.” Hunter recalls in an interview with PEOPLE magazine, that he said, “Through those years, I really didn’t talk to anybody about it and didn’t tell my parents or my family.” Being a subject of mockery had such a profound impact on the Paralympic champion as a kid that he didn’t have the will to confide in the very people that brought him to this world, and thus he felt that it was only him and him.

He further said, “I kind of just kept it to myself. There wasn’t much navigation at all through those years.” Of course, he was only a child back then, and dealing with all that alone was not going to help either way; all he was doing was “dealing with it and trying to get through, day by day.”

The bullying had so got to him that he lost his self-confidence. Then he finally found his passion in junior high. He spent his “the previous 700 days in my life had just been me thinking I was worthless.” But he turned the very thing he was bullied for into his biggest strength and now flexes a portfolio with 5 Olympic medals, the first para-athlete to be awarded an NCAA Division I track scholarship, and a world record at the Paris Paralympics.