After Tara Davis-Woodhall won her first Olympic medal at the Paris Olympics—gold, no less—in the long jump, the world watched as she dashed over to the stands to her husband, Hunter, and the two shared an absolutely electric moment of excitement. “The whole world got to see how much he supports me,” Davis-Woodhall said in a video interview after the competition. “That’s just Hunter and I.”
Though their celebratory embrace circulated endlessly on social media, it only scratched the surface of how sweet this couple’s story really is. Now that Hunter, a decorated runner in his own right, is set to compete in the Paralympic Games, which kick off on August 28, we brushed up on their backstory:
Hunter was born in 1999 in Georgia with fibular hemimelia (the shortening of or lack of the fibula bone in the legs). When he was just eleven months old, his parents chose to have his legs amputated below the knee, and he grew up using prosthetics—something that didn’t stop him from playing with his brothers, riding a bike, and participating in sports, where he excelled in track and field. When he was just sixteen, he competed in the Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro and took home a silver medal in the 200 meter T44 and a bronze in the 400 meter T44. “They said I’d never walk, so I learned to run instead,” reads the tagline on his Instagram account.
During his senior year of high school, sparks flew between Woodhall and Californian Tara Davis at a track meet in Idaho, according to a YouTube video the duo made. He watched her compete in hurdles and sent his friend a prophetic text: “This is the girl I’m going to marry.” The next day, Davis watched Woodhall run his race (he won) and worked up the courage to ask him for a hug—an adorable foreshadow of their viral Olympic moment in Paris. Woodhall immediately reported to the same friend he’d texted before: “Tara Davis just walked up to me and hugged me.” Later, at the awards ceremony, the two shared small talk, and Davis remembers telling her mom about the cute guy she had met. After going back to their respective homes, the pair started chatting over social media, and the romance took off.
Woodhall went on to earn a Division I scholarship to run for the University of Arkansas, becoming the first double amputee to ever do so. Meanwhile, Davis spent her freshman year at the University of Georgia and then transferred to the University of Texas. The couple continued their relationship during this time, and both competed in the Tokyo Olympics, where Davis came in sixth in long jump and Woodhall took home a bronze in the 400 meter T62.
In 2021, Woodhall proposed, and the pair got married in McKinley, Texas, in 2022, and now live in Fayetteville, Arkansas. They document their lives—everything from how they met to their wedding to the morning after Davis-Woodhall’s win in Paris—on their popular YouTube channel.
When to watch Woodhall compete
Following his wife’s success in Paris, Woodhall is gearing up for his own events. He’ll be competing in two events: the 100 meter T64, with the qualifying round on September 1 and the final round the day after, and the 400 meter T62, for which the qualifying round is on September 5 and the final on September 6.
To run, Woodhall uses blades—curved prosthetic lower limbs made of carbon fiber. Blades are light and springy and favored by runners for their technology: When the foot hits the ground, the blade compresses, storing potential energy. Then it rebounds, pushing the runner forward using nearly all of the energy generated by the stride. By any measure, Woodhall runs fast—he can finish the 400 meter in 46.09 seconds. For comparison, the world record for the 400 meter, for any runner, is 43.03 seconds.
So we’ll be cheering for Woodhall to chase down a gold. As he recently posted, “I will not be participating at the Paralympics, I will be competing. Putting a new definition on disability.”
And we’ll be keeping our eye out for Tara in the stands in her signature cowboy hat, and we can only hope for another victory celebration from this powerhouse of a couple.
Here is how to watch the Paralympic Games.
