Hunter Woodhall dedicates Paralympic gold win to his uncle, celebrates with his wife

Hunter Woodhall, who made fans swoon by being a supportive husband as his wife won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics, clinched a gold medal of his own on Friday.

Woodhall won the men’s 400-meter T62 final with a time of 46.36 seconds during the Paris Paralympics to complete the golden summer for the power couple who have cultivated a large fan following by sharing their journey via YouTube and social media channels.

They reached a wider audience earlier this summer when NBC cameras captured Hunter offering effusive motivational phrases and cheers for his wife, Tara Davis-Woodhall, who won a gold medal in the long jump. She later told the Associated Press she competed with a severe bruise on her left heel.

She called their emotional embrace in the stands “the best moment of my entire life.”

The couple trained together near the University of Arkansas and pursued their first Olympic and Paralympic gold medals.

Hunter Woodhall finished sixth in the men’s 100-meter T62 final earlier this week and had one last chance for gold during the Paralympics. He pulled away during a tight 400-meter T62 race.

After he won, Woodhall ripped the number off his jersey and displayed a message he wrote on the back for the TV cameras.

The message read: “Wyatt Woodhall: This one is for you.”

Wyatt Woodhall, Hunter’s uncle, was a longtime coach in Montana who died in May 2021 after a long battle with cancer.

“Wyatt is the most selfless person that has ever been in my life and that I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing,” Hunter Woodhall told MontanaSports.com in 2021. “He had such a big impact in my life. He was there from the time I was born and my parents were having to go through the decision to amputate my legs. He and the rest of the Woodhall family was there through that whole experience.”

Soon after honoring his uncle, Hunter Woodhall found his wife in the stands for a long embrace.

American Hunter Woodhall leans into the stands and hugs his wife, Paris Olympics gold medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall, after winning 400-meter T62 final at the Paris Paralympics Friday.

(Thibault Camus / Associated Press)

The duo first met in 2017 during a high school indoor track meet in Pocatello, Idaho. She traveled from California and he traveled from Utah to compete. They described their meeting in a popular YouTube video. Tara said Hunter caught her while warming up for an event. He was wearing sweats and she didn’t notice the prosthetics he had worn since his legs were amputated below the knees when he was 11 months old. He recalled watching her take a picture on the track and telling a friend “this is the girl I’m going to marry.”

“I stepped onto the track and said, ’I don’t know why I have to do this, but I have to give you a hug,’” Tara told the Associated Press. “He was like, ‘OK.’ He was very taken aback. And that was the first time we talked.”

She sent him direct messages on social media and their relationship took off. After long-distance dating, they got married on Oct. 16, 2022, and chased their gold medals.