Hunter Woodhall is the reigning 400m men’s T 62 Paralympic champion. Recently, the American revealed he underwent emergency surgery for an enlarged appendix, and shared the story of how a unique piece of equipment might have saved his life.
Woodhall, a five-time Paralympic and two-time World Championships medalist, rose to fame alongside his wife, Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall. The duo shared glimpses into their everyday lives with fans.
Recently, the sprinter recalled the story of how his Oura ring might have saved his life. Taking to Instagram, Hunter Woodhall shared a video of himself talking, and began by saying,
“This (Oura) ring might have saved my life yesterday.”
He went on to detail the whole story, explaining that he was on the way to Syracuse, Utah to visit his father who recently underwent open-heart surgery, when he began experiencing a stomach ache. The sprinter initially put it down to lactose intolerance due to some blue cheese he ate for his lunch, but the pain got progressively worse and continued the next morning.
He explained that his symptoms in the morning included soreness in the abdomen, saying,
“When I woke up, I still had some soreness in my lower right abdomen, which came up as a red flag, but I figured I could just tough it out. What caught me off guard is a symptom radar that had major signs that something was wrong in my body and I have been wearing this (Oura) ring for four years and I never saw this. So it instantly caught me off guard. It told me that my resting heart rate was increased, my body temperature was increased and my HRV was increased.”
Woodhall then explained that after looking at the symptoms on his ring, he went to the hospital with his mother, where doctors discovered he had an enlarged appendix.
“I asked my mom if she would take me to the hospital, but they did all the tests. They did my blood test. They did the urine test and everything was coming back negative, not good. They didn’t know what was going on, but they knew it wasn’t good. Then I finally did a CT scan and looking at the CT scan, they could see my appendix was extremely enlarged. Luckily I hadn’t burst yet, but I was going to have to do an emergency surgery.”
Hunter Woodhall ended the video by reassuring fans that he was doing well and would use the next few days to recover alongside his dad.
Hunter Woodhall shares a glimpse of his training for the 2025 season
For Hunter Woodhall, 2024 was a phenomenal year. Last season, the American made his third consecutive appearance at the Paralympic Games. In Paris, the sprinter won gold in the 400m men’s T 62 event, while clinching bronze in the 4x100m mixed relay.
Now, as he prepares for the 2025 season, Woodhall recently gave fans a glimpse of his training session. Taking to Instagram, he shared a video of himself completing a grueling on-track workout, captioning it with three gorilla emojis.
Throughout his career, Hunter Woodhall has won five Olympic medals, including one gold, one silver, and three bronze. He is also a two-time World Championships silver medalist, having finished second in the 100m men’s T 64 and 400m men’s T 62 in Kobe last year.
Edited by Vaishnavi Iyer
