Faulty reasoning signals

• Post Hoc (False Cause) - 25.3%
• Optimism Bias - 18.3%
• Halo Effect - 11.4%

Article text

Newsweek is a Trust Project member

See more of our trusted coverage when you search. to see more of our trusted coverage when you search.

Ali Truwit will be the first to acknowledge that an “unlucky, bad thing” happened to her. It’s “easy,” she said, to hear her story and see only the worst of it.

But she doesn’t bother herself with that. When she thinks back to May 24, 2023—the day a shark bit off part of her left leg—she sees “so many miracles scattered throughout.” Like the fact that her best friend, Sophie, was in the water with her at that moment. Or their ability, as former Yale swimmers, to swim back to the boat that sat 75 yards away. Then there's Sophie’s medical knowledge, and the “strength and composure” she showed while applying the tourniquet to Truwit's wound. Never mind that their other best friend, Hannah, just happened to be on med school rotations at the very hospital Truwit was airlifted to.

“How lucky am I that that’s the way that played out?” she asked Newsweek during an interview for our "Newsmakers Impact" series, with a smile beaming across her face.

She credits that perspective with carrying her through the immediate aftermath of the incident. It got her through finding out that the surgeons would need to amputate more of her leg than was actually lost, to give her greater functionality. And it was essential to adjusting to life after the amputation—which took place on her 23rd birthday—and getting comfortable with a prosthetic.

Truwit’s ability to see goodness in times of hardship has carried her far beyond that shark attack. It’s taken her all the way to Paris, where she not only competed in the 2024 Paralympic Games just a year after she lost her leg, but also where she won two silver medals, for the 400-meter freestyle and the 100-meter backstroke, respectively.

“It is a constant work in progress to have that mental strength to speak positively to yourself,” Truwit said.

Today, she swims faster than she did with two legs. Achieving that was part mental fortitude, part physical training and a whole lot of Coach Jamie Barone, who has trained Truwit for the past 15 years.

“He coaches people beyond their potential,” the 25-year-old Truwit told Newsweek .

He often tells her, “Turn the lights on. Don’t swim in the dark.” It reminds her that setting a goal is not enough. She can’t get there if she doesn’t know where she is right now. In our conversation, she talked a lot about building strength and resilience through daily habits. It’s those small everyday decisions that allow her to know what to do once she finds herself in the “bigger arenas.”

“What distinguishes people who end up succeeding in their own goals or against their competitors is putting in the work when other people don’t,” Truwit said. “It’s what gives me confidence behind the blocks—it’s looking back on a season of practice.”

Getting to practice is not always easy. Sometimes, Truwit finds herself sitting in the car trying to convince herself to walk into the pool. But on days when she doesn’t want to climb into water, she thinks about her wants: to represent people with disabilities on a world stage, to bring attention to water safety, prosthetic access and the Paralympic movement through her Stronger Than You Think foundation, and “to turn this traumatic, hard thing into something hopeful.”

To be clear, hopeful is not the same as inspirational.

“A lot of people have a tendency to look at Paralympians and say, ‘How inspirational,’” Truwit said. “The danger in stopping at ‘inspirational’ is that you miss out on ‘fast’ and ‘talented’ and ‘skillful.’”

She hopes that when spectators watch the Paralympics, they recognize these athletes are competing at speeds and with skills that able-bodied athletes are achieving—with one less leg or some other impairment.

In January, Stronger Than You Think announced a $400,000 grant to fund awards for the top U.S. Paralympic swimmers at the 2026 Para Pan Pacific Championships and World Series meets in 2027 and 2028. It's an effort aimed to close the money gap between Olympians and Paralympians. (Fifty-seven percent of Team USA Paralympic athletes earn less than $50,000 annually and work multiple jobs to fund their Olympic dreams.)

“Four-hundred-thousand dollars is an amazing start and I am really proud of it,” Truwit said. “But it needs to be in the millions to have the impact that we want to have, to change those numbers enough.”

She laughs when she admits that her goal to turn her foundation into a household name is “a big dream.” But if you’ve followed her journey, it’s hard to imagine a dream too big, or a distance too far for Truwit.

Watch our entire "Newsmakers Impact" interview with Truwit above.

Request Reprint & Licensing

View Editorial & AI Guidelines