Professional swimmer Ali Truwit is no stranger to the bathing suit lifestyle—both the ups and the downs.
As she told Sports Illustrated Swimsuit for its 2025 edition, on stands now, Truwit knows how empowering but challenging such a world can be, especially as your physique changes and you "become a little more focused on what your body looks like," she said.
But "I was lucky" in that regard, the paralympian continued, "and I think it's because the people I surrounded myself with were people who celebrated what our bodies could do and how powerful and strong and beautiful we were."
The two-time silver medalist would certainly know a thing or two about that. Not long after graduating from college, when she swam for Yale University, Truwit lost her leg in a shark attack while snorkeling in Turks and Caicos.
In her SI Swimsuit debut, Truwit, now 24, detailed a bit more about that harrowing moment, her road to recovery and the healing way in which she has framed the incident to empower herself moving forward.
"When the shark attack and amputation first happened, there was a lot of media interest in my story. There was a lot of misinformation out there as a result of waiting eight months to share my story. And I really wanted to correct the narrative that [Sophie Pilkinton, Truwit's former Yale swimming teammate] and I saved ourselves. We fought a shark, we swam 70 yards—me, footless and bleeding—back to a boat. We saved ourselves. And that was such a healing thought to me. That I could take this bad thing that happened to me and use it for good.
"When I first came out of the hospital, I had just become an amputee for the rest of my life, as a 23-year-old girl. To think that now, 17 months later, I'm sitting here, on the beach and in the pool, posing in my prosthetic in a swimsuit for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit is just a moment that gives me chills."
The limb loss and water safety advocate also commented on the exciting phone call she received from actor Tom Cruise before competing in her first event at the 2024 Paralympics, for which she qualified just one year after her amputation.
"It was the night before my first big race, my 400-meter freestyle. There was a random number coming across my phone, and I'm a little nervous and anxious the night before my first big race, and my mom's like, 'Pick up the phone, pick up the phone.' So I answer, and immediately, someone on the other end is, like, 'Please hold for Tom Cruise.' ... He got on the phone and was like, 'You've worked so hard to get to this point. You've already achieved so much, in and out of the water, and I encourage you to just go out there and enjoy it. Relish in all of the support and all that you've already done and feel so proud of where you are.' That was the exact message that I needed in that moment."
Cruise was certainly on to something; Truwit would go on to win a silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle, plus another in the 100-meter backstroke.
The 2025 SI Swimsuit issue is out now on newsstands everywhere.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ali Truwit Dives Into Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.
