KEARNS — A Utah-born Paralympic star and vlogger just explained how he lost his legs.
Hunter Woodhall, a Syracuse, Utah, boy who just won three Utah states titles this weekend, shared with the world how he lost his legs — a question he receives all the time.
The short answer: He was born with a condition fibular hemimelia; a birth defect where some or all of the fibular bone is missing. He also said he was born with nine toes and "club foot," where one of his feet curbed inward, like a golf club.
When he turned 1, doctors amputated both of his legs. Three months later he received his first pair of prosthetics, he said.
The video includes a slew of memes and GIFs that help explain his story. It has received 1,515 views so far. Woodhall has more than 1,000 subscribers to his Youtube account with more than 4,000 followers on Twitter.
Youtube commenters said the video was hilarious and inspiration.
"I love how positive you are about the whole thing :) keep doing you!" one commenter wrote.
Woodhall said he shared his story so that people going through tough times would know they're not alone.
"We all go through struggles. So whatever you're going through, just know that there's a plan in place," he said to close his video. "And if you're going through a hard time, it's important to know that you're not alone in your struggles."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcQAhk9z5MAWoodhall's success is almost unparalleled. He won the 400-meter race, took first place in the 200 and helped lead his 4x400 meter team to victory this past weekend, according to MileSplitUT.
He also secured a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Woodhall spoke with the Deseret News back in 2015 before his dream to play for Team USA was realized. He said young people can always survive tough challenges in their lives with the right mindset.
“I’d probably say that life goes on for sure,” he said. “It’s nothing that you can change. It’s going to change your life, but not disable you. It’s not going to limit you to do certain things. Doctors or people might say things, like ‘He’s never going to be able to walk or he won’t have a normal life.’ Everyone thinks those things. … And if you start getting those thoughts in your head, if you start thinking, ‘Oh, I am disabled,’ then you just have to get that out of your head. You might have to do things differently, but you can still do what you want.”