Hunter Woodhall wins Paralympic gold and completes a dream summer for track’s power couple (2024)

In a 400-meter race, the last hundred meters are the hardest. Especially the final 60. But Hunter Woodhall has perhaps never been more prepared for them in his life.

He pulled away from Olivier Hendriks of the Netherlands, surged past Germany’s Johannes Floors and powered down the stretch. The 25-year-old in his third Paralympic Games got stronger down the stretch. He crossed the finish line a gold medalist in the 400 meters (T62 — for double below-the-knee amputees). A triumphant climax on a journey that has moved the nation.

When the race was over, after he’d taken off his WOODHALL name tag and flexed for the camera, he did what America was waiting for him to do. He ran to his wife.

Tara Davis-Woodhall, the gold medal long jumper and half of the beloved duo, was waiting with open arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. And wouldn’t let go.

GOLDEN COUPLE!🥇🥇

Hunter Woodhall celebrates with Tara Davis-Woodhall after his race. #ParisParalympics pic.twitter.com/pnRcX59Uyh

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) September 6, 2024

Woodhall’s story is an epic tale of inspiration. It is a magnum opus on resilience. A testimony to the human spirit and the power of dreams. But as much as any of that, perhaps more than any of that, his is a love story. One that has captured the nation.

His love for Tara. His love from Tara. He feels its impact in his life, on the track. Friday night at Stade de France outside of Paris, it pushed him to another level.

He was already an accomplished sprinter. While at the University of Arkansas, he won a bronze medal in the SEC Outdoor Championships — against non-disabled runners. He won a silver in the 200 meters (T44) and bronze in the 400 meters (T44) in the 2016 Rio Paralympics. At the Tokyo Games in 2020, he won bronze in the 400 meters (T62).

This year was about discovering a new peak. About seeing what could happen when talent and opportunity are maximized. And doing it together. He nabbed two silvers at the world championships in Kobe, Japan. Now he has gold.

“Every time we both compete,” Woodhall, in a previous interview in Paris, said of his and his wife’s ritual, “the first thing we do is look for each other in the crowd. Make sure we’re there. And then it’s kinda like, ‘Alright, I’m good.’ No matter what happens, I’m good.”

Love is patient.

Woodhall’s gold medal required plenty of it.

Just over a year ago, at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris, he had his heart broken. He sat on the white lane marker, slumped over, crying. Forced to withdraw from the final of the 400-meter T62 race. Robbed of glory by a malfunction.

During warmups, a bolt came loose on his prosthetic. Despite the efforts to fix it, the leg came apart when he practiced out of the block. Another runner tried to help his distraught opponent. But it was all bad. Woodhall was out of the world championships, moments before the final. Years of training and preparation poured out of him on the cerulean track.

Still, he got exactly what he needed. His wife ran from the stands. To hug him. To cry with him. To remind him he wasn’t alone. As he sat on the track, off to the side, overcome with the devastation to cap the hardest meet of his life, his wife kneeled next to him. Her arms around his neck. Her hands rubbing his head. Her eyes, beneath a pink hat, filled with his pain.

“Tara was on the side of the track waiting for me,” Woodhall said. “I watched that race go off without being able to run it. She was right there with me. Got me back on my feet, literally, to get to where I am.”

Thus began a journey, one that saw Woodhall step up his game. He got his prosthetics fixed, a malfunction he blamed on his wanting diligence, and won a prolonged battle with the International Olympic Committee to get his new prosthetics approved. He also locked in like never before. The little outs he gave himself, the discipline and extra effort required of greatness, became his modus operandi. As Woodhall has described it, it’s vulnerable to give everything. It’s scary to face the harsh truth of your everything not being enough. Subconsciously, Woodhall said, an athlete, a person, will avoid the complete submission, leaving an excuse to justify the failure.

His life with Tara has taught him the value of all-in — together. The reward far outweighs the risk.

Friday, he was back in his favorite race. Just 400 meters from glory. This time his expectations were greater. His fame was larger. The stakes were higher.And he had his inspiration watching in the crowd. Piercing his ears with the word that locks him in and brings out his best.

“She’ll yell, ‘Execute!'” he said. “She says other things, but I don’t want to say those.”

Love is kind. Love does not envy.

The world heard Woodhall’s words for Tara as she won Olympic gold. In the same stadium last month, she posted two jumps longer than seven meters, more than enough to secure her first Olympic gold medal and title as best women’s long jumper in the world.

And when it was finally a reality, that she was the victor, she punctuated her signature success by jumping into the arms of her husband.

His arms squeezed her torso. His forehead pressed against hers. His eyes filled with her amazement.

“Love is the support,” Tara said. “He supports me every single day. Without that, I don’t think I could be in the position I’m in today.”

It was a picture of why this couple captured the Olympics. Why they’re a wholly unique pair and yet unmistakably relatable.

Tara Davis-Woodhall is a phenomenon. She is a ferocious competitor. She attacks the runway with tenacity, and a sprinter’s speed, so stubborn as to defy gravity. And the camera simply can’t get enough of her bubbly energy and raspy charm. Her smile exudes slumber-party fun and her eyes beam with spontaneity. She could stand next to the biggest stars in the world, all 5-foot-4 of her, and earn her fair share of attention.

And her husband loves it. No one will out-enjoy, out-appreciate, out-adore Tara.

“There’s just no one who works as hard, no one more disciplined,” he said. “She makes it really easy to love her and support her. And she does the same for me.”

They’ve parlayed their mutual admiration into a profitable brand. Track and field athletes, especially Paralympians, tend to have a ceiling on their earning potential because of their cyclical relevance. They work as hard as any athlete, accomplish feats just as impressive. Their sport, however, doesn’t garner the massive bounty bestowed on some other athletes.

The Woodhalls changed their trajectory by refusing to exist in the window of their sport. They left college early, turned pro, and bucked against the established measurement of their value. They created their own paradigm of worth. By refusing to be more than times and feats. By letting people in. By banking on each other.

Loves like theirs do exist. You just don’t see them often. Not in sports. Not so intentionally transparent. That’s why the 457 videos on their YouTube channel have garnered 387 million views and 870,000 subscribers. Plus another 158 million likes on TikTok. And another 6.6 million followers on TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat.

The couple has an endorsem*nt deal with Lululemon, the headliner in a stream of endorsers looking to capitalize on their magnetism. The Woodhalls have a massive audience that’s growing, far larger than one might expect for a long jumper and Paralympian.

“I don’t understand why people relate to us the way they do,” Woodhall said. “Or why they support us as much as they do. I’m just grateful. “We’re just going to keep being ourselves, being authentic, being who we are. It’s cool.”

Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

In 2017, at a track meet in Idaho, Tara Davis walked up to Hunter Woodhall, a man she didn’t know, and offered him a hug. Because he looked like he needed one.

The meeting turned into more. Woodhall had on sweats when they first met. It wasn’t until later she would learn he was a double amputee. Some women have declared on social media how a first date at The Cheesecake Factory was a deal-breaker. Yet, Tara was undeterred.

“Absolutely,” she said. “I don’t look at people for their looks or what they have going for them. I look at their heart. He was cute! He was cute! But to fall in love with him, and his personality and his soul, that’s what truly stuck out the most.”

That’s, essentially, all you need to know about Woodhall’s rizz. He didn’t even have to pull Tara.

“She came to me,” he said. “She shot her shot.”

The Syracuse, Utah-raised Woodhall was 11 months old when both his legs were amputated. He was never expected to walk because of fibular hemimelia, being born without a fibula or a deformed one. But the decision to amputate was his saving grace.

He wore prosthetic legs before joining his school’s track team and switching to carbon fiber blades. A constant target of ridicule and bullying, running was therapy and community. And Woodhall was fast. By senior year, he was one of the fastest in the nation in the 400 meters. He signed a scholarship with the University of Arkansas, becoming the first double amputee to earn a Division I scholarship in track and field.

That’s when he met Tara. He was prepared for the love of his life, having been softened by the harshness of life.

“I feel like I had a lack of love,” Woodhall explained. “Growing up, going to school … I saw the other side of things. How mean people can be. How hurtful people can be. I felt like it taught me empathy.”

They were engaged in 2021. They married in October of 2022. They became a force in sports in 2024.

Friday, Woodhall added another chapter to their epic story. They’re both gold medalists. The best in the world at their main sport.

He was able to run this race with every fiber of his being and compete from a place of security and peace. Because before winning, he’s already won. Because he has Tara and Tara has him, and together they can’t help but win.

Love never fails.

(Top photo of Tara Davis-Woodhall and Hunter Woodhall celebrating her long-jump gold medal at the Paris Olympics:Patrick Smith / Getty Images)