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The 17th Summer Paralympic Games kicked off yesterday with a stunning opening ceremony along Paris’ Champs Élysées. Over the next ten days, 4,000 athletes will compete in 549 medal events—and one of those athletes is swimmer Ali Truwit, who recently spoke with Moira Forbes about her journey to the Paralympic Games.

A former Division I athlete, Truwit lost part of her left leg after being attacked by a shark in Turks and Caicos last year. She told Forbes that she questioned whether she’d be an athlete ever again, but also recognized that she was lucky to be alive after the attack and wanted to make the most of her survival. “We can't control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond and how we make meaning of it,” Truwit told Forbes.

At the Paralympic Trials in June 2024, Truwit secured three gold medals and set an American record, qualifying her for the Paralympic Games and surprising Truwit herself. Today, as she readies to compete on the international stage, Truwit also wants the world to........

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