Paris 2024: Shark attack victim Ali Truwit on second lease of life with the Paralympics

"I walked into La Defense Arena feeling like I have already won with the fact that I am walking in here a year after a shark attack."

Twelve months ago, Ali Truwit was physically and mentally in recovery mode. The American, whose maternal grandmother was Irish, was learning to take her first steps with a prosthetic leg three months after a horrific shark attack altered the course of her life.

At that stage the Yale graduate, who was a key part of the women's swimming and diving programme at the college, had yet to return to the water.

In July 2023, just six weeks after her amputation, she dipped her toes for the first time, the lure of the pool too strong for someone who has dedicated herself to pushing up and down the lanes.

By September she was back training again with her former coach James Barone, yet the scar tissue was understandly still there; Truwit couldn’t look at the prosthetic – she would always cover it up – and didn’t want others to see it either. Training was more solitary until an unplanned meeting with a former team-mate in November.

That emotional interaction was the tipping point in her self-image in the pool. Emboldened, Truwit decided to embrace her new identity and competed in her first Para swimming event.

A month later she medalled at the US National Championships in Orlando.

Suddenly the Paris Games was a consideration. Six months later qualification was secured, Truwit competing in the S10 category, in which swimmers have a physical impairment affecting one of their joints.

A group of 50 supporters will be in the stands at the noisy La Defense Arena this evening where the 24-year-old goes in search of glory in her 400m freestyle event (4.50pm Irish time).

A runout in the 100m freestyle on Sunday was a