Tara Davis-Woodhall made two especially memorable jumps at the 2024 Paris Games.
The first came in the women’s long jump event, when, on her fourth leap, she soared 7.10 meters, good enough to secure her first Olympic gold medal.
The second came after she won the gold, when she ran over to the stands and jumped into the arms of her husband, Hunter.
“You’re the Olympic champion!” he yelled. “You did it!”
Following his wife’s first-place performance, it’s now Hunter’s turn to go for gold. He will compete in the men’s 100-meter T64 and the 400-meter T62 at the Paralympic Games, which begin Wednesday. Athletes in T61-64 events are "competing with prosthesis affected by limb deficiency and leg length difference," according to World Para Athletics.
“I’m feeling really good, mentally and physically,” Woodhall told NBC News. “Watching Tara in Paris was a really great visualization. So I’m prepared.”
Woodhall, 25, was born with fibular hemimelia and is a double amputee. He met Woodhall-Davis on the track when they were in high school. After having dated long distance in college — Hunter attended Arkansas, while Tara attended Georgia and then Texas — they married in October 2022.
They have been open about their journey as a couple as well as athletes, documenting their ups and downs on their way to the Olympics on their own YouTube channel.
Davis-Woodhall has had her most successful year on the track. She qualified for the Tokyo Games in 2020 but finished sixth in the long jump. This year, she took home gold at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, before she did the same in Paris.
“He’s gone through it all with me,” Davis-Woodhall said of her husband's support. “So just jumping into his arms, that was just a full relief of ‘wow, I finally achieved my goal.’”
Woodhall is still looking for his first major gold. He won a silver in Rio in 2016 in the 200-meter T44, as well as a bronze in the 400-meter T44. In 2021, he took home another bronze from Tokyo in the 400-meter T62.
“It’s a grind, it is,” the couple’s coach, Travis Geopfert, told NBC News. “It is hard to be that focused and that disciplined and that consistent. And I think that championship mindset is what makes athletes like Hunter and Tara elite.”
Though Hunter is still looking for his first gold medal, he only has to look at his wife to see how it’s possible to make it to the podium after some stops and starts. He already credits her for the success he has achieved so far.
“There’s zero chance that we would be doing what we’re doing if we didn’t have each other,” Woodhall said. “For sure.”
