PARIS: In the depths of the Stade de France, track and field’s most charismatic couple were wearing their gold medals, leaning on each other and drinking it all in. One half of the duo, US double amputee sprinter Hunter Woodhall, had propelled his prosthetic blades to Paralympic gold in the T62 400 meters in Paris on Friday. Next to him, his wife Tara Davis-Woodhall, the Olympic women’s long jump champion, was wearing sunglasses and a huge smile. It was the first Paralympic title of 25-year-old Woodhall’s career - he won a bronze medal in the one-lap event at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

As soon as he crossed the line on Friday, Hunter ran to his wife trackside, just as she had done in a picture that went viral after her Olympic triumph on August 8. 2024 has been a year neither of them will ever forget. “I think this is a lesson in shooting for the stars and making big goals,” said Hunter, his face still flushed after shedding tears of joy. “When we said this is what we wanted to do, a lot of people told us we were crazy. Every single day we just showed up, we did our best and this is the outcome.” Tara, also 25, responded: “He took the words right out of my mouth! I am pretty sure we both wrote down on our goals of the year, Paralympic gold and Olympic gold, and we have not stopped working since then.

“It has been honestly the craziest journey of our entire lives.” What is striking about the Woodhalls is the obvious joy they take in each other’s successes. “Tara has taught me a lot,” Hunter said, who had recounted after he finished sixth in his 100m event earlier in these championships that his wife did speed work with him, running alongside him to hone his technique. Hunter was born with a fused right ankle and fibular hemimelia in his left leg. At 11 months old both his legs were amputated below the knee.

‘Fix this’

Last year, in the para-athletic world championships, also in Paris, one of Hunter’s prosthetic legs broke as he prepared to start the 400m. He was distraught. “From that moment, Tara looked at me, she said ‘we’re going to make changes, we’re going to fix this’. That’s what I did, I made sacrifices, I dialled in, I worked and made sure that would never happen again.” The couple met at an indoor athletics meeting in Idaho in 2017. Hunter was leaving the track when Tara walked over and said, “I don’t know why, but I just feel like I need to give you a hug.”

The exchanged messages on social media and met again a few months later and “started talking, non-stop,” Tara said in a YouTube video. They kept up a long-distance relationship while both attended different universities but they married in 2022 -- and now they are inseparable. At the Olympics, their social media account “thewoodhalls”, charting their preparations and their experiences in Paris, attracted tens of thousands new followers on Instagram and TikTok - they now have nearly 600,000 on the former and 260,000 on the latter. They have over 800,000 followers on their YouTube channel.

Their appeal is clear, and their social media following has attracted the kind of young audience that track and field craves in a world where - outside of the Olympics and Paralympics - it faces a battle for attention against so many other sports. “There are so many great kids coming up in the sport,” Hunter said. “I think that is the greatest thing about having so much awareness of the Paralympics, is that we’re going to continue to grow.” For now though, the plans are clear: “Party!”, said Tara. — AFP