Megan Gray stretched each of her arms across her body and then shook out her hands. Then the 11-year-old put on her game face as she prepared for the toughest athletic test of her life so far. Near her, Hunter Woodhall, the three-time Paralympian who won gold while running on two blades in the men’s 400-meter T62 race in Paris last month, pulled up to the starting line.
It wasn’t even close.
Gray, who has two club feet as a result of a hereditary condition, channeled the leopard print on her shirt and sprung into the lead as soon as the racers were given the signal to start. The sixth grader at East Lake Elementary could have finished her math homework before Woodhall, who hasn’t used a wheelchair since he was a young patient at Shriners Children’s, completed the wheeled race around the hospital’s driveway Wednesday.
“She’s pretty good,” Woodhall, 25, had to admit.
Woodhall may have set the stage for his own defeat. In a speech before the race, the double amputee offered some nuggets of advice to the crowd of Shriners Children’s patients and their families who had gathered both to welcome home the Syracuse-raised track athlete and his wife, Olympic long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall, and to admire their dual gold medals.
“Whatever you want to do in this world, whatever you want to do in life,” he told them. “It is possible.”
Woodhall is living proof.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Young patients at Shriners Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City dish out a healthy dose of smack talk after racing Paralympic athlete Hunter Woodhall during a visit on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. They include, from left, Madi Sandstrom, 9; Cole Spencer, 10; Woodhall, 25; Megan Gray, 11; and Drew Cheever, 10. Woodhall had his legs amputated when he was 11 months old and spent much of his youth at the hospital.
First, after losing his legs at 11 months old due to a condition called fibular hemimelia, he became one of the first children to be fitted with blades — the curved prosthetic that rebounds more like a real foot than standard prosthetics. Then, he became the first double amputee to receive an NCAA scholarship. Most recently, though, he and Davis-Woodhall set a goal to become the first married couple to win gold medals in the same Olympics and Paralympics (though according to Olympstats.com, some 35 couples have won gold at the same Olympics).
The couple garnered more than just hardware at the Stade de France in Paris this summer, though, they also drew worldwide attention. When Woodhall-Davis won gold in women’s long jump, she celebrated by leaping into the stands into Woodhall’s arms — a moment that became one of the most viral of the Games. When he won the 400-meter T62, he brought the moment full circle by leaping into Davis-Woodhall’s arms.
Shriners patients gathered at the hospital for a watch party that was live streamed into the stadium by NBC as part of its broadcast of the race. Shortly after celebrating with his wife trackside, Woodhall addressed the kids watching from Salt Lake City.
“This gold is as much mine as yours,” the three-time Paralympian told them in an interview with NBC. “That’s one of the first things Tara and I planned is going back to Salt Lake City hospital and seeing all you guys.
“And now we’re bringing two gold medals, baby!”
But Woodhall was inspiring kids with challenges long before he won gold.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Hunter Woodhall, a gold medalist in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, races Madi Sandstrom, left, and Drew Cheever during a visit to Shriners Children’s Hospital on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. Woodhall had his legs amputated when he was 11 months old and spent much of his youth at the hospital.
When he was just a teenager at Syracuse High, a mom took her 3-year-old boy – who was affected by the same lower-leg condition as Woodhall and also had his leg amputated as an infant — to see Woodhall compete in a track meet. Woodhall wrote the name of the boy, Will, on his arm and told him it gave him the “will” to win. He also signed a dark orange baton and gave it to the boy.
Two years later, at age 5, that little boy became a test patient to become one of the youngest amputees to be fitted with a blade.
That same boy, Will McKay, was in the crowd Wednesday and brought the baton with him. A fifth grader at Odyssey Elementary, he just got outfitted with a new prosthetic blade, this one with a Los Angeles Dodgers wrap. That’s fitting since McKay, 11, is now baseball obsessed and harbors aspirations of making a competitive team next summer.
His mother, Sara McKay, said Woodhall didn’t just set an example for Will that day at the high school track. The bigger impact, she said, may have been on her two older sons who realized their little brother’s future wasn’t limited.
Woodhall said he didn’t hear enough of that message as a kid with physical differences.
“One thing I wish someone had told me,” he said, “is it’s OK to dream big.”
Not all the attendees at Wednesday’s event were seeking inspiration, though, nor to win races or prove themselves the best. Some, like 17-year-old Travis Carpenter, just came to show gratitude.
“Shriners has helped me so much and helped Hunter so much,” said Carpenter, who is affected by a condition called neurofibromatosis and spends much of his time in a wheelchair. “I just came here to party with them.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Travis Carpenter, 17, poses for a photograph with Tara Davis-Woodhall and Hunter Woodhall, both gold medalists in the Paris 2024 Games, during a visit to Shriners Children’s Hospital on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. Woodhall had his legs amputated when he was 11 months old and spent much of his youth at the hospital.
