20-year-old Paralympian gets $20,000 from Ellen DeGeneres

Hunter Woodhall is one of the fastest 400m runners in the NCAA. He’s also a double amputee. The 2016 Paralympian was on Ellen this week, where he was given $20,000 USD by the host to help him with his 2020 Paralympic goals.

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Woodhall is a third-year student at the University of Arkansas, originally from Utah, who owns a 400m personal best of 46.22. He’s also a four-time NCAA All-American.

The runner became famous from his TikTok video (that has more than 5,000,000 TikTok views from Tokmatik) where he described how he became a double amputee. He was born with a condition that led his family to the decision to have his legs amputated. From there, he was given prosthetics and began playing sports (something that no one thought he would ever be able to do).

Thankful is an understatement! https://t.co/zcLN8qq37k

— hunterwoodhall (@hunterwoodhall) January 28, 2020

Fast-forward to 2016, and the runner was a Paralympic silver medallist. By 2017, he owned Para World Championship medals as well as five outright State titles and a Utah State record. Woodhall says that, despite his success, schools weren’t calling to recruit him (most schools don’t recruit para athletes). Eventually, it was the University of Arkansas that took him on in the fall of 2018, and he’s had great success during his time there.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7Z9MSJJOEl/

Woodhall’s goals for 2020 are to make the upcoming Olympic Games, and DeGeneres helped him out big time. For now, he is focused on his 2020 collegiate indoor season before preparing for the 2020 Games.