‘I'm getting to finish this on my terms': Darien swimmer headed to Paralympics a year after shark attack

Ali Truwit thought her next chapter was written.

“I had a job lined up,” said Truwit. “I was going to start in October after a summer of celebration -- travel with friends.”

The Darien native had her Division I swim career at Yale behind her and a new job in New York City in front of her.

“But then I went on vacation and a shark attacked me and my plans changed a lot,” said Truwit.

That’s a plot twist twist no one would ever see coming.

“It’s everyone’s worst nightmare and it came true,” Truwit said.

In fact, there’s a lot of reasons Truwit shouldn’t be telling this story at all.

“Pretty quicky it has my leg in its mouth and it had bit my foot and part of my leg off,” Truwit said as she recounted that day snorkeling in Turks and Caicos in May of 2023.

But for all the reasons she shouldn’t have survived to tell that story, there’s even more reasons why she is.

“I just kept telling myself 'stay conscious, stay together just get to the boat, get to the boat,'” said Truwit. “I relied on 15 years of competitive swimming to give me any advantage in a situation where I had none.”

There were her years as a competitive swimmer and her Yale swim teammate, Sophie Pilkinton, who was in the water with Truwit that day, on the trip with Truwit that week, to celebrate her own medical school graduation.

“Immediately when I got on the boat Sophie tied a tourniquet on my leg and then when my leg didn’t stop bleeding enough she tied it again and saved my life,” said Truwit.

Then, there are the doctors at the hospital in Miami, among them another Yale Swim alum. There are the nurses and therapists, her family and siblings, and Truwit’s fight to say her story isn’t over yet.

“So she Facetimes me from a hospital bed.”

Truwit’s childhood swim coach, James Barone remembers his first conversation he had with her after the attack. “And she says, ‘remember all those years you were trying to get me to kick my feet? Well I just swam 70 yards to a boat with no foot,’” Barone said.

As it turns out, that is where Truwit’s next chapter would really begin.

“Goal number one was to help Ali get better and we used sport as a vehicle for improvement and it was really powerful to watch,” said Barone.

“I loved the water and I wanted to keep that love, but it was also really, really scary and hard,” Truwit said. “Physically, I had a newly amputated leg so the nerve endings were extremely reactive to any sensation -- and then mentally, hearing the sound of water contributed to flashbacks.”

With the help of Barone and a handful of current and former paralympic athletes, Truwit swam in her first meet just three months after the attack. Ten months after that, she qualified for the United States Paralympic team.

“I’m so excited to wear the flag on my cap,” said Truwit. “To me, not is that only a huge honor, it’s a way to thank the everyday heroes in my story who saved my life.”

“All of this attention is coming to her and she’s just holding up a mirror and saying 'I'm going to send that right back out into the world,'” said Barone.

Truwit knows that her story may make her one in a million, but the lessons she has learned can resonate with anyone.

“For anyone going through traumatic experiences or unexpected life events, we’re all still powerful, even as we are changed,” said Truwit. “The water is still the place for me and it’s still a place that shows me my power and my strength.”

No, it’s not a story Ali Truwit ever imagined she’d be telling, but she’ll share it for whoever needs to hear it.

“I’m getting to finish this on my terms in a way that I never would have imagined and at a level I never would have imagined,” said Truwit. “To think about the fact that I get to represent my country is so incredible. We all have more in us and for me that’s such an exciting thought.”

The Paralympic Games run from August 28 to September 8 in Paris.