Hunter Woodhall won his first-ever gold medal at the Paralympics in the 400m T62 category. it took him 46.36 seconds to cruise to victory doubling up the joy of his wife Tara Davis-Woodhall’s Olympic long jump gold a few weeks back. Hunter’s victory became sweeter with the fact that it came after a long wait from two previous Paralympics. He was so happy that he described the moment as a ‘fever dream’.

In the Paris Paralympics, Hunter Woodhall showed incredible determination as took away the race in the final straight to overtake defending champion Johannes Floors of Germany by a substantial margin of 0.54 seconds. In the same event in the Rio 2016 (46.70) and Tokyo 2020 (48.61 seconds), he had secured bronze. This is a kind of redemption in another way as this came four days after his disappointing sixth-place finish in the 100m T64 final, even though he set a personal best (10.96s). Back then, Hunter had vowed to come back for the 400m.

“This is a lesson in shooting for the stars and making big goals – dream big, show up, do your best and you never know what might happen. I was hungry and I wanted it so bad,” Hunter had told reporters after the emotional gold-medal winning performance. Naturally, congratulatory messages poured in from the whole track world. And among all was 100m Olympic champion Noah Lyles.

Noah replied to an X post by USA Olympics and Paralympics, celebrating Woodhall’s victory, as he wrote, “You already know this but I’m gonna say it again I’m so proud of you Bro!”. It was a heartfelt moment seeing an athlete at the top of his game appreciating another. Interestingly, this is not the first time Noah Lyles has supported the US Paralympic track team.

After his namesake Noah Malone won the silver medal in the 100m T12 race, he responded cheekily. He said, “Must be something in the name Noah that makes you fast.” However, his words to Hunter Woodhall become even more special when one realizes the challenges he had to face.

Just a year before, during the 2023 World Para Athletics Championship, Hunter Woodhall faced a major setback. He had to withdraw from the competition after suffering a prosthetic malfunction. It was a tough situation considering the Paralympics were not far away. But he came back even better. And how? By striking a medal not once but twice in this year’s Paris Paralympics.

Roughly an hour and a half after his blazing victory in the 400m, Hunter came back to take part in the 4×100-meter universal relay Final. He ran the second leg for the relay team that had four individuals, two men, and two women, having different disabilities: visual impairment, amputee, cognitive, and athletes in wheelchairs. Relay batons are not used. Instead, teammates tag one another.

Hunter (T62) lined up with his U.S. teammates, Tatyana McFadden (T54), Noah Malone (T12), and Taylor Swanson (T37). Clocking a time of 47.32 seconds, the team grabbed bronze. With his medals in the Paralympic arena, Hunter has come a long way from his struggling childhood days when the doctors had ruled that forget running, he would never even walk. Hunter had spoken about that in a conversation with Harry Connick after his Rio Olympic win.

The host had asked him if proving that wrong was the motivation that kept him going. Hunter’s reply to that was no less astonishing than his accolades. “As I got kind of older, I realized that it’s not about technically proving the disbelievers wrong, but it’s about proving the people that believe in you right,” Hunter had said and the applause did not stop. Notably, in this journey, Hunter had got some guardian angels who gave him this new life, says the 5X Paralympic medalist.

It was the doctors of Shriners Hospitals for Children who refused to give up on Hunter. Hunter thinks, it is their approach toward him that made all the difference. “What they’ve done is amazing. I think you know my whole entire life I was treated as as a kid with a disability. Growing up in school I was bullied a lot because I was different and from the beginning, you know, Shriners took me in as a person and they looked at me as a person as an athlete,” Hunter said adding that he takes the hospital staff as is another family. While he was saying these, his mother, Barb Woodhall, was sitting in the audience. And the proud mother was visibly emotional.

“When he was born we had no idea what what his future held, and we know there’s greater things to come,” a teary-eyed Barb had said. And it did come. Not only as the shiny medals. But in the form of his wife Tara Davis-Woodhall as well.

Hunter Woodhall recreated Olympic celebration at the Paralympics with Tara 

Hunter gives a lot of credit to his wife, Tara Davis-Woodhall, for where he is today. “Tara’s got me back on my feet, literally,” he said. The couple are very publicly supportive of each other and even train together. They captured fan’s attention after their heartfelt celebrations when they won the medals. During the Olympics, Hunter Woodhall was cheering for his wife Tara Davis-Woodhall. This was during the long jump final, where Tara ended up winning the gold medal with her massive jump of 7.10 m.

Hunter’s sheer jubilation and delight at watching her win was heartwarming and captured everyone’s attention. After winning, Tara came to the stands hugging Hunter as they burst into celebrations. “Babe, you’re the Olympic champion!” Hunter had said to Davis as she jumped into his arms following her big win. Now, as Hunter’s turn to compete approached at the Paralympics, Tara supported him with equal dedication. She had posted on her Instagram how she went sleepless while traveling to the event venue to see Hunter compete.

After celebrating his victory with the crowd, Hunter Woodhall ran to his wife Tara to embrace her as they recreated the Olympic moment. Their hug, in fact, lasted longer than it took Hunter to win the race! The long jumper said later in an interview that she felt very nervous in the stands as her husband was preparing to run. This was because she knew how much he wanted this and how hard he had trained for it.

But, now that both of them have won their respective medals, it’s a very happy moment for them. Tara said, “It was a dream for us to both win gold and now we have. We’ll be wearing these golds for the rest of our lives.” In a joint interview with TODAY.com, the couple said that such moments helped keep each other “grounded” as their dreams came true. When they reunited after each competition, they told each other, “We did it,” and, “You won,” Woodhall says.

And the two are fiercely together in this journey. So much so that do not even want to look anyone else apart from each other when they attain a significant feat. “We do everything together. We train at the exact same time, go to the weight room the same time, we come home, we cook together, and then in the evenings, we’ll go over our film from practice and talk about what we did good, what we can work on and how we can get better,” Hunter said in the interview.

Looking at their chemistry, it seems, it is not just pursuing their careers, but also enjoying a passion they share with each other. Having such supportive other halves is sure to create more such moments in the days to come.