Our next guest is an incredible athlete
who's inspiring people around the world through his TiKToK.
The video of him telling his life story
has been viewed 5 and 1/2 million times.
Take a look.
I swear everyone of my comments is
saying my legs got bit off by a shark
or I got hit by 17 buses so here's my actual story.
So when I was born I had a birth defect
and it made doctors tell my parents that I would never
be able to walk.
But when I was a year old, someone
suggested that I got my legs amputated.
So then I cut both my legs off and soon
after I got my first pair of prosthetics.
After that I started running and playing sports
and doing all sorts of things that I was never
supposed to do.
In fifth grade I went to public school
and I went through a lot of bullying.
It was super hard for me but I made it out.
And in junior high, I joined the track team
because I had a few friends and they were running track
and it's somewhere where I felt comfortable.
I got a little bit better each year
and even ended up being able to compete all around the world
running track.
By my senior year I was one of the fastest kids in the nation
but no colleges wanted to recruit me
because there had never been a double amputee
competing in the NCAA.
Finally the University of Arkansas took a chance on me
and signed me on scholarship.
I've been running here the last two years.
Every day has been a blessing.
It's a blessing that I'm even here and able to walk.
So y'all go chase your dreams.
Don't listen to what other people tell you.
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
From [INAUDIBLE].
Please welcome Hunter Woodhall.
Hi.
I don't know what it is.
You're a great hugger.
Great hugs.
They're awesome.
I'll hug you more if you'd like.
You're--
Not complaining.
You're amazing.
So in that video you tell the story really fast.
It's great that you explain it to everybody really quickly.
So you lost your legs early on but you always were athletic.
You were always running around doing things.
Right?
Yeah absolutely.
You know I grew up with two older brothers
and I credit a lot of that to them and just how I was raised
and I loved sports.
And I didn't actually start running track
until seventh grade.
And I didn't run it, like I said in the video, to be an athlete.
I just ran it because I felt comfortable there.
And I was always in the back of the pack.
I was never one of the best on the team.
But it's somewhere where I felt like I could actually
be myself.
And you know through that, I remember races
where I'd finish last and people would still clap for me.
And I would always wonder why are you clapping for me?
I lost.
And I realized that people were just content
with me showing up.
The kid without legs just showing up, like kudos.
Yeah, yeah.
And I hated it because I was like these people don't see me
as an athlete, they see me as a kid with a disability.
And that's one of the reasons that I really
wanted to pursue athletics and pursue track,
because I wanted people to see me
as that's Hunter the athlete.
[APPLAUSE]
So I agree with you.
I think if people would just embrace whatever it is.
There's no good or bad, there's no labeling It,
it is just who you are and how you're born
and whatever that is.
And if somebody sees it as a disability or a disadvantage,
it's like you're wrong.
This is my strength.
This is what's going to make me special and help other people.
Absolutely.
So all right, so you got-- finally
you went into the Paralympics in 2016.
Yep.
And that must have been an incredible feeling.
It was amazing.
Like I said, that was kind of the pinnacle, the payoff,
to all the hard work I'd been put into before.
And I was actually able to win a silver and a bronze medal
for my country, which is amazing.
And obviously the gold are there,
but at the end of the day, those accolades and those medals
they come and go.
And in the moment it's amazing, but the very special moments
and the things we get to remember
that stick the most are one, being able to share those
with the people I love.
My family, they were there, and I
was able to share that moment with them.
And then moments like this, and I
say that genuinely, is being here and being able to show
people that it doesn't matter.
There's nothing that separates me from anybody watching this.
It's how much do you want it?
Go get it done and you can accomplish your dreams.
Yeah, well what an inspiration you are.
And now so you finally-- it took a while for a college
to actually allow you to just run with the regular team
and they finally, you are now where?
So when I finished the Paralympics
I actually came back and I was one of the top five runners
in the nation, able body, and I wasn't getting any calls.
No one was recruiting me.
And after a while we figured out it was
because there's a gray area.
No one has ever been to NCAA with a double amputee.
And the University of Arkansas, which is where I am now,
took a chance on me.
And they said hey, we believe in you,
believe in what you're doing.
Let's go for it.
You know even now it's hard a lot of times.
I go through a lot of people saying
that I have an advantage, that running with prosthetics
I'm cheating in a way.
Even at my state championship my senior year,
I won the state championship.
I broke the state record and it was one of those moments.
I say to my girlfriend, Tara, all the time,
these are the moments.
And that was one of them.
And somebody in the stands stood up
in front of my family and my friends and said,
he's cheating.
He doesn't deserve to be here.
Get him out of here.
In front of everybody.
Wow.
And took that moment away from me.
And you know, I still get that even in college a little bit.
But the thing people don't realize
is, I didn't choose this.
And just like anybody else, I want to be an athlete.
I want to pursue my goals, so to try
to take that away from me or anybody else is ludicrous.
I think we just need to be inclusive and realize
we're all people.
How would you be cheating?
What would give you an advantage to run with prosthetics
versus someone else?
I'm not a scientist so I'm just going
to preface it with that, but--
I thought you were.
You're going to have to go.
I'm sorry--
It's the lab coat.
I think is what it is.
But at the end of the day.
It's just my blades are made in a way that
mimics what a human foot would do so
when it hits the ground it'll bounce back off.
And a lot of people will say hey, that's a spring.
If you think about it, in running you're
supposed to go forwards so going up and down as a spring is not
going to help that much.
Right.
Well, I think you're amazing.
And you have a big following on TikTok
so I thought we would do something
because-- it's a challenge.
It is.
All right.
So you've been posting these videos.
Should we show the video?
Oh boy, here we go.
I did this for you by the way.
[ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
Woo!
OK that seemed easy.
Not as easy as you think.
No, no it's easy.
So now I have one and we're going to do it together.
OK?
Is this real life?
Yeah, real life.
We're going to do one together for TikTok.
Wow.
Here we go.
All right.
OK we are rolling.
[ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
Thank you for bringing me through that.
All right--
I should have come here first.
One more TikTok.
Do you want to--
All right.
Ready?
I don't need music for this.
We have some friends at Shutterfly
who want to help you get to the Paralympics this summer.
So they're going to give you a check for $20,000.
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
Can I hug you again?
Thank you so much.
[AUDIENCE CHEERING]
We'll be right back.